Supercells’ vault regions are notorious lightning factories, and this was no exception. As the storm moved closer, so did the powerful electrical generator located unseen, high above the right side of the view, where intense charge separation was underway on the margins of the tilted mid/upper-level updraft. This stroke, blasting into a tree in the row about a mile distant, sent me back to the vehicle in very short order. The combination of outflow from two supercells—one unseen at right rear that already had passed north of my location, the other visible here—kept this storm’s base ragged, its inflow at least partly elevated, scud tags rising off the rain foot and into the cloud base. Regardless, for about an hour, it was a formidable storm, spitting large hail, occasional wet downbursts like the one manifest as a rain foot at lower middle, and of course large sparks.
5 ENE Shamrock TX (29 May 18) Looking W
35.2486, -100.1658Vault Strike
Supercells’ vault regions are notorious lightning factories, and this was no exception. As the storm moved closer, so did the powerful electrical generator located unseen, high above the right side of the view, where intense charge separation was underway on the margins of the tilted mid/upper-level updraft. This stroke, blasting into a tree in the row about a mile distant, sent me back to the vehicle in very short order. The combination of outflow from two supercells—one unseen at right rear that already had passed north of my location, the other visible here—kept this storm’s base ragged, its inflow at least partly elevated, scud tags rising off the rain foot and into the cloud base. Regardless, for about an hour, it was a formidable storm, spitting large hail, occasional wet downbursts like the one manifest as a rain foot at lower middle, and of course large sparks.
5 ENE Shamrock TX (29 May 18) Looking W
35.2486, -100.1658