Our rewarding convective day began at lunch and ended after dinnertime, with over eight hours of storm observation (a full day’s pleasure) in southeastern New Mexico. It all culminated magnificently in the appearance of this sunset-hour supercell under the waxing gibbous moon. The anchoring storm at right had formed south of the original supercell that we had been watching for many hours, then merged into the same anvil shield and precipitation field. Intense convection still blasted up a thick, tilted column from the boundary layer at lower right into the backsheared anvil. That backshear rolled outward and below their parent formation in knuckle clouds—downward-pointing moist convective thrusts that are not mammatus and have no formal name yet. Given their origin, I’ll deem the formation cumulonimbus condilus (the latter meaning “knuckle” in Latin).
7 NW Carlsbad NM (8 Jun 14) Looking SE
32.4747, -104.2939Carlsbad Storm and Moon
Our rewarding convective day began at lunch and ended after dinnertime, with over eight hours of storm observation (a full day’s pleasure) in southeastern New Mexico. It all culminated magnificently in the appearance of this sunset-hour supercell under the waxing gibbous moon. The anchoring storm at right had formed south of the original supercell that we had been watching for many hours, then merged into the same anvil shield and precipitation field. Intense convection still blasted up a thick, tilted column from the boundary layer at lower right into the backsheared anvil. That backshear rolled outward and below their parent formation in knuckle clouds—downward-pointing moist convective thrusts that are not mammatus and have no formal name yet. Given their origin, I’ll deem the formation cumulonimbus condilus (the latter meaning “knuckle” in Latin).
7 NW Carlsbad NM (8 Jun 14) Looking SE
32.4747, -104.2939