Photos and videos have gone viral on social media showing stunning sights of ominously dark and massive storm shelf clouds rolling across the Australian coast towards Sydney, giving warning of thunderstorms about to break loose over the city.

Even as the Bureau of Meteorology predicted gloom and doom, with warnings of severe storms, large hailstones and heavy rainfall in Sydney, Hunter region and the South and Central coastal regions, massive “tsunami” walls of black shelf clouds — also known as “arcus clouds” — hung over beaches, and loomed menacingly over the city on afternoon Friday.

As the “cloud tsunami” gathered, thousands of brave residents of the city took to the streets snapping photos. Thousands also took to social media, posting breathtaking photos and videos of dark and foreboding thunderheads rolling slowly across the sky and over beaches, spreading darkness over the city.