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...]
Panhandle Wall Cloud
After the lightning barrage abated, the previous wall cloud's mesocyclone occluded quickly and passed the rotational baton to this one, which didn't rotate as fast but which lasted a little longer. Accordingly, we jumped east a few miles to set up the next shoot. During much of its lifespan, this peculiar supercell moved only during occlusions, jumping eastward 3-4 miles in steps instead of … [Read more...]
Sudden Appearances
We had been tracking a rather scruffy and marginally organized supercell for about an hour—a storm that had gone through one short lived mesocyclone and high based wall cloud of little consequence. We knew it was moving toward a very moist and favorably sheared outflow boundary left over from the previous day's storms, so we stayed with it. In the time span of driving north just a few miles … [Read more...]
Stern-Chase Surprise
This example, while not high contrast, is a fine spotting illustration of how a partly rain-wrapped tornado may look from the back (departing) side of a mesocyclone. During much of the mature supercell stage, we had been in good viewing position for the fast-moving supercell. Then it "barfed all over itself," heaving a well defined gust front and a large, cold pool of outflow that appeared to … [Read more...]
Pasterze Glacier Zoom
The photo zooms in to the Alpine Pasterze's glacial debris bands, and shows crumpled patterns of ice under both sun and shadow from the clouds above. Isn't it amazing how much different the very same natural feature can appear if one looks at it close-up? 5 NW Heiligenblut, Austria (1 Aug 5) Looking NW 47.0756, 12.7508 … [Read more...]
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