More than twisting in the wind, this storm was made of twisting wind. It developed near the Front Range of Colorado and moved toward the east-southeast, encountering a vertical profile of winds that veered from southeasterly to westerly and increased with height. This is the the classical ingredient of wind shear in the recipe for the atmosphere to cook up a supercell. The band of cloud material that slopes from lower-left to middle, then turns inward with respect to the storm, does a great job of visually tracing part of the rotary helix that defines any supercell. The storm’s dark side casts subtle turquoise hues, the result of sunlight dispersed and muted through many miles of dense cloud material, rain and hail aloft.
12 N Punkin Center CO (17 Jun 11) Looking W
39.0260, -103.7078Rotating Storm
More than twisting in the wind, this storm was made of twisting wind. It developed near the Front Range of Colorado and moved toward the east-southeast, encountering a vertical profile of winds that veered from southeasterly to westerly and increased with height. This is the the classical ingredient of wind shear in the recipe for the atmosphere to cook up a supercell. The band of cloud material that slopes from lower-left to middle, then turns inward with respect to the storm, does a great job of visually tracing part of the rotary helix that defines any supercell. The storm’s dark side casts subtle turquoise hues, the result of sunlight dispersed and muted through many miles of dense cloud material, rain and hail aloft.
12 N Punkin Center CO (17 Jun 11) Looking W
39.0260, -103.7078