ILLINOIS -- Chicken Little once complained of the sky falling, and maybe he was right.
An incredible video of a shelf cloud swept the internet in recent days as a strong system moved through Tuesday in the town of Anna, Illinois.
Maranda Marie Benefield shot the video in a Walmart parking lot and posted it to her Facebook page.
Shelf clouds are usually associated with an approaching thunderstorm or cold front and once they pass overhead, the wind picks up and temperatures fall. Benefield wrote that's what happened when it blew over her location.
"This has to be one of the craziest shelf clouds I have ever seen," 10Weather meteorologist Grant Gilmore said. "That said, just because it looks ominous doesn't necessarily mean the weather associated with it was severe. In fact, the fractured nature of the leading clouds suggests the storm may have been weakening."
Gilmore said it looks like a contrast in lighting added to the drama of this cloud formation.
"The clouds in the background were much darker due to less sunlight and/or heavy rain which made the leading clouds, which look like a dissipating shelf cloud, appear to have a have a lot of texture," he added.
John McMichael, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service in Ruskin, Fla., confirms the video looks legitimate.
"I had not seen the video, but it was pretty amazing," he said.
Photos: How a shelf cloud forms
Photos: How a shelf cloud forms
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