Even with the obvious tornado at lower right, a great deal more was happening here. The tilted cone tornado was less than 30 seconds old, and soon would grow much larger, to become the “Tipton” event. The old Luray tornado just had dissipated on the southern corner of the distant supercell’s updraft area, at far lower left. In between: a short-lived, intermediary, diffuse, yet tornadic circulation was manifest as a bent column of dust from ground to cloud; it occasionally (though not at this instant) sported a well-defined condensation funnel at cloud base. This intervening vortex briefly overlapped the lifespans of the two more robust tornadoes. In fact, all these vortices were several miles apart, as seen by closer observers, but our distant, wide view made them seem closer together than reality. A ragged inflow tail, in the middle of the frame, wrapped in front of the distant tornadic supercell, its scuddy form racing northward at marvelous speed. Meanwhile, we were watching the rainy, messy mesocyclone region of a different supercell immediately to our northwest (off right of image, unseen); its scuddy flanking base is visible in the upper quarter of this shot.
1 S Glen Elder KS (28 May 19) Looking SW
39.4702, -98.3123
RADARThree-Way Tornadic Handoff
Even with the obvious tornado at lower right, a great deal more was happening here. The tilted cone tornado was less than 30 seconds old, and soon would grow much larger, to become the “Tipton” event. The old Luray tornado just had dissipated on the southern corner of the distant supercell’s updraft area, at far lower left. In between: a short-lived, intermediary, diffuse, yet tornadic circulation was manifest as a bent column of dust from ground to cloud; it occasionally (though not at this instant) sported a well-defined condensation funnel at cloud base. This intervening vortex briefly overlapped the lifespans of the two more robust tornadoes. In fact, all these vortices were several miles apart, as seen by closer observers, but our distant, wide view made them seem closer together than reality. A ragged inflow tail, in the middle of the frame, wrapped in front of the distant tornadic supercell, its scuddy form racing northward at marvelous speed. Meanwhile, we were watching the rainy, messy mesocyclone region of a different supercell immediately to our northwest (off right of image, unseen); its scuddy flanking base is visible in the upper quarter of this shot.
1 S Glen Elder KS (28 May 19) Looking SW
39.4702, -98.3123
RADAR