Days of late spring and early summer often find just enough low-level moisture banked up against the Raton Mesa and nearby volcanic hills to support late-morning through late-afternoon thunderstorm development. This area is a reliable storm factory, as the elevated terrain heats and the atmosphere overturn sooner than over the surrounding landscape. This was one of several towering strokes from … [Read more...]
“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 … [Read more...]
Amber Glow
The day already was a visual delight for us, including wild cloud structures and a fortuitous visual illusion beyond sandscapes. The atmosphere's mesoscale convective shell game removed the storms where we had been, leaving a complicated evening sky dominated by multilayered clouds that littered the back side of a thunderstorm cluster to our SE. With other cloud layers to the WNW blocking … [Read more...]
Updraft Geyser
A dying plume of a thunderstorm's updraft shriveled away in the southern sky, its bottom cut off from view by the crest of a vegetated sand dune, giving the illusion of a geyser erupting from just past the ridge. The warm late afternoon light accentuated the dunes' muscular contours and shortgrass upholstery, giving a rich texture to this special Nebraska Sandhills scene. 11 S Hyannis NE (11 … [Read more...]
Vigo Vigor
Numerous wall clouds came and went in this long-lived supercell, before it finally produced a well-defined tornado. This vortex formed from a southward-moving, deep, old and shrinking occlusion (the sixth of seven mesocyclones we observed). The tornado caught us somewhat by surprise, but fortunately we were in good position to observe and document it. It also moved southward, popping a power … [Read more...]
One Occlusion among Many
The mesocyclone here (the fourth of seven total from this supercell) was a broad, elongated circulation that produced this large and ragged wall cloud. Taking a long time to organize, it began rotating rapidly, as it retreated slowly north-northwestward away from us and into more and more rain. In the low-contrast murk, we saw an ominous, bowl-shaped lowering that might have made a brief … [Read more...]
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