Dangerous and delicate at the same time, a tornado depends on a narrow but still incompletely understood balance of storm-scale conditions to form and persist. This one spun near Blum, TX, for almost 10 minutes within a deeply occluded mesocyclone, evolving from a rain-wrapped bowl shape to a lumpy elephant-trunk formation here—and later, a tapering, pointed tube that destroyed a wedding venue. The lowered clouds to its right were scud chunks rising rapidly into a cloud base in front, but never became tornadic.
1 NNW Osceola TX (3 May 21) Looking W
32.1509, -97.2412