Tail clouds are appendages at least loosely resembling tails attached to thunderstorms, and are not rotating and not tornadic. They can move rapidly horizontally and/or vertically, however. Tail clouds also can occur at all levels, but usually in low to lower/middle parts, such as those seen here as the “Black Hills supercell” as the storm crawled south-southeastward across the southern fringes of the Rapid City area. One of the tails—slightly above and to the right of the lowest part of the updraft base—was smooth, nearly laminar, and persistent, and wrongly reported by some spotter or chaser as a funnel cloud. Of course, it was not, since it had no rotation, just slanted rising motion of air being recycled from the thin, translucent, forward-flank core.
2 WNW Caputa SD (8 Jun 18) Looking WSW
44.0178, -103.0507Storm Tails
Tail clouds are appendages at least loosely resembling tails attached to thunderstorms, and are not rotating and not tornadic. They can move rapidly horizontally and/or vertically, however. Tail clouds also can occur at all levels, but usually in low to lower/middle parts, such as those seen here as the “Black Hills supercell” as the storm crawled south-southeastward across the southern fringes of the Rapid City area. One of the tails—slightly above and to the right of the lowest part of the updraft base—was smooth, nearly laminar, and persistent, and wrongly reported by some spotter or chaser as a funnel cloud. Of course, it was not, since it had no rotation, just slanted rising motion of air being recycled from the thin, translucent, forward-flank core.
2 WNW Caputa SD (8 Jun 18) Looking WSW
44.0178, -103.0507