Seeing a newer, larger mesocyclone cross the road to our north and head east, most other observers fled this location in order to go find a way east, to keep up with the supercell. Normally that’s a reasonable maneuver. However, 1) with the nearest east option being in the core, 2) having watched tornadoes form in the “bent-back” area where old, occluded mesocyclones can go to die at the rear of supercells, 3) knowing that part of a storm often sheds its wrapping precip as the newer area organizes, 4) in what was a favorable mesoscale environment…I thought this had a chance to produce a visible tube. It did, and in spectacular fashion! This is a slightly earlier version of the “white snake” stage of the 2018 Prospect Valley tornado, but with the skeletal, ragged parent mesocyclone and wall cloud also included at wide angle, for context. It was a magnificent scene, one shared mainly with meadowlarks from this angle.
4 S Prospect Valley CO (19 Jun 18) Looking NNE
40.0152, -104.4178
RADAR“Bent-Back” Tornadic Mesocyclone
Seeing a newer, larger mesocyclone cross the road to our north and head east, most other observers fled this location in order to go find a way east, to keep up with the supercell. Normally that’s a reasonable maneuver. However, 1) with the nearest east option being in the core, 2) having watched tornadoes form in the “bent-back” area where old, occluded mesocyclones can go to die at the rear of supercells, 3) knowing that part of a storm often sheds its wrapping precip as the newer area organizes, 4) in what was a favorable mesoscale environment…I thought this had a chance to produce a visible tube. It did, and in spectacular fashion! This is a slightly earlier version of the “white snake” stage of the 2018 Prospect Valley tornado, but with the skeletal, ragged parent mesocyclone and wall cloud also included at wide angle, for context. It was a magnificent scene, one shared mainly with meadowlarks from this angle.
4 S Prospect Valley CO (19 Jun 18) Looking NNE
40.0152, -104.4178
RADAR