I finally have everything up; I downloaded the GR2AE trial (
awesome program) and have spent many hours playing around with it. I chased with Matthew Fischer and Adam Lucio who posted our story above. In short, we chased the long track, cyclic supercell from Lafayette into ne IN and witnessed numerous wall clouds and funnels. The best way to view my pictures would be in order on my
website, as I have chronolgically ordered the 3d radar images within my pictures. The first picture in that album is a composite I made of the
10/17 & 10/18 storm reports; it's amazing what percentage of the country was affected by this event.
Shortly after initiation sw of Lafayette, IN, the storm produced a left split which strengthened and went svr warned while the main storm struggled. As if someone flipped that metaphorical switch, the storm undewent incredibly rapid intensification from
THIS @ 2040z to
THIS @ 2046z. Shortly thereafter, this appeared:
At the time, I believed the appendage was virga, but now believe it to be a shapely, ragged funnel.
Contrast enhanced. In the
pictures taken shortly after that, the rain to the left clears and you can see a well defined meso.
The supercell cycled as the sun went down and rotation
tightened as a well defined wall cloud appeared between lightning flashes:
You can see the wall clound and possible funnel just to the left of the barn:
We later witnessed the lowering that Kurt Hulst posted above as it was illuminated by city lights.
This is what 90+ kt mid-level winds do to developing towers.
LFC=KFC
I will post my account of the Nappanee tornado shortly
