Chris Carter
EF3
Chasers are reporting a wall cloud with the cell near Talmage, NE. My eyes are watching the cell that just formed south of Omaha to see if that will go severe as well.
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2012-03-29 MISC: NE/MO
- Thread starter Chris Carter
- Start date
StormStalkers
So, the Tornado Watch seems to be on the south side of the storm that is going tornadic and that 3000 CAPE is holding strong in the Watch box which is why that area is empty right?
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Click for large viewStormStalkers
Well, maybe it's starting to erode.
Chris Carter
EF3
I don't see it going tornadic now, base rotation is still strong, but the mid level rotation is nowhere as good as it was when it was developing. Still bears watching as it moves east. Funny how it still looks to be the best looking cell for development In Nebraska/Iowa. The cell north of it looks more like a hailer than something would that produce a tornado. More cells firing back to the west near Lincoln and Beatrice.
I'm a little surprised to see this event unfold the way it has. The parameters today looked just as good as they did yesterday, which went fairly bonkers given the low shear. I think the difference today has been the presence of that shortwave moving across NE/SD providing more forcing than there was for storms yesterday. Seems that extra forcing caused more widespread development across SE NE and NE KS, which caused problems for storms in terms of remaining discrete. There was probably a lot of interference with outflow from one storm impeding the inflow of a neighboring storm, and thus a given storm didn't have as much time to become organized and go tornadic. I think there was also more 0-3 km CAPE yesterday than today. Seems it's much more likely for storms to get interesting when there is more 0-3 km CAPE.
As of right now, that storm that is crossing the MO-IA border north of Maryville has broad rotation and seems to be the storm to watch as it is generally furthest south where instability is greatest and has direct access to the 30-40 kt LLJ that has developed. Still looks kinda grungy, though, and is leaving the area of decent SBCAPE behind. It probably will become elevated soon if it hasn't already.
As of right now, that storm that is crossing the MO-IA border north of Maryville has broad rotation and seems to be the storm to watch as it is generally furthest south where instability is greatest and has direct access to the 30-40 kt LLJ that has developed. Still looks kinda grungy, though, and is leaving the area of decent SBCAPE behind. It probably will become elevated soon if it hasn't already.
jshields
yeah i know for sure that's what happened with the first main cell southwest of nebraska city. it looked great for a while and was getting even better organized until some junk formed to the south and southeast of it and cut it off. the storm did a split with the left split dying pretty quick and then the right split headed towards tarkio and rock port where it did get it's act together for a little bit again. i guess there was a wall cloud and several funnels with the storm for a while. i was surprised too that there weren't more tornadoes out of tonights stuff. it definitely looked pretty promising around 430-500 oclock parameter wise.
Skip Talbot
EF5
Finally, just after Rockport, MO, the storm produced a new wall cloud and deep funnel that just couldn't quite make it down.
I've seen this feature cited a few times as a funnel cloud in other reports. Does anyone have video of this feature showing strong rotation? Probably not since it was at night. It screams scud. Look at how ragged the bottom of that feature is. Look at the scud immediately surrounding it, and under the base next to it. The orientation of the feature suggests it's bowing outward from outflow. The right edge of the lowered base (on the right side of the image) has almost the exact same structure. Would you call that a funnel too? I'm not trying to rain on everyone's parade, but I think we should have higher standards than to call every chunk of scud under an updraft base a funnel. This is especially important when it comes to reporting. We need to be objective in our reports to make sure the NWS gets the ground truth, and not a bunch of chaser/spotter hype because everyone out there wants to see tornadoes and funnels.
Please elaborate on this image/storm if you have better evidence showing that it is a funnel. Otherwise, I think we need to go back to basics here and stress good reporting. Watch that feature for at least a couple minutes for strong rotation. It should be rapid and persistent. Scud, while it too can have dramatic motion, often falls apart in less than half a minute. Funnels typically have a smooth, laminar, cone shape to them. Reporting funnels at night is incredibly difficult. What you can do though is watch between lightning flashes to see if it holds its shape for at least a couple minutes. Scud will have usually morphed into some other shape by then or fallen apart. If you've got a smooth laminar point (and not a ragged lowering with multiple points) that persists for a couple minutes, you're probably looking at a funnel.
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Andy Jackson
EF3
I remember watching that thing for a bit I caught a couple of flashes on tape. It did cause a double take at first like I said even though I don't think anyone called it in or did they?
I will post my screen grab because it does look pretty interesting.
Andy Jackson
EF3
Here's what I saw this is from some buildings driveway from the main road east of Rock Port:
Brett Nickeson
EF2
Skip, I understand your concern on it and it was difficult to tell at the time whether it was just lightly rotating scud being sucked up or if it was an actual funnel. I believe it was a weak funnel but since it was dark and only being illuminated by lightning I can't be certain. It was reported as a funnel on SN by at least two people. In checking my exif data, the lowering persisted for at least four minutes and likely a few minutes longer than that. I stopped shooting to reposition when it looked like a smoother condensation funnel and I could still see it while driving for at least another minute. So it lasted for at least 6 minutes or so. Below are three images over the course of a minute, with the last one being the last shot I took. The pic that you quoted in your post was taken a couple minutes before the below shots as I have a shot almost exactly like it.
Tim Nendick
EF0
Since I'm the one who took the picture in question, here's a bit of the requested elaboration:
To try and show any motion that was present, I made a couple little animated .gifs of the image sequence. They are converted to greyscale to save some space, and I've included the time stamp from exif data as well.
3fps
(link to host)
10fps
(link to host)
Higher resolution of the more laminar time period (4fps).
( link to host)
Looking at exif data, I'd agree with Brett Nickeson, the feature persisted about 5 minutes. His pictures show the smoothness better than mine.
This is the first feature I've actually seen at night. I'm not normally comfortable going into the near storm environment without the constant visual feedback I'm used to. However, the slow storm motions and a flawless chase up to this point bolstered my confidence enough to follow it past nightfall.
Still, I stayed back pretty far. I am positive other spotters were closer to the feature, and more able to see what was happening. Both because of my inexperience in night identification and because I thought others would be better able to provide ground truth, I did not make any reports of the feature.
Hopefully something in there helps in combination with the other posts in properly identifying what this was.
To try and show any motion that was present, I made a couple little animated .gifs of the image sequence. They are converted to greyscale to save some space, and I've included the time stamp from exif data as well.
3fps
10fps
Higher resolution of the more laminar time period (4fps).
Looking at exif data, I'd agree with Brett Nickeson, the feature persisted about 5 minutes. His pictures show the smoothness better than mine.
This is the first feature I've actually seen at night. I'm not normally comfortable going into the near storm environment without the constant visual feedback I'm used to. However, the slow storm motions and a flawless chase up to this point bolstered my confidence enough to follow it past nightfall.
Still, I stayed back pretty far. I am positive other spotters were closer to the feature, and more able to see what was happening. Both because of my inexperience in night identification and because I thought others would be better able to provide ground truth, I did not make any reports of the feature.
Hopefully something in there helps in combination with the other posts in properly identifying what this was.
