Sitting there at a west-facing indoor window, observing growing convective towers on a convergence line and eating tacos, what did I spy with my aging eye, but a funnel cloud? So I dutifully retrieved my cameras, strolled to a vantage, extended that tube-zoom lens way out, and started shooting. The skinnier one to the left lasted several minutes; the one to the right developed near the end of the first funnel’s lifespan and lasted only about 45 seconds. Both were only weakly rotating, never with enough ground circulation beneath to raise dust or debris. As such, neither ever represented tornadoes. The towers weren’t even a storm yet, barely a radar echo, and definitely not supercellular, despite enough environmental shear to support supercells a few hours later. The convergence line also coincided here with a low-level vorticity axis in objective mesoanalyses, so the presence of these funnels wasn’t particularly surprising.
Shamrock TX (8 May 19) Looking W
35.2321, -100.2505