3/31/2006 REPORTS: AR/TN/IN/AL/MS

[Ronnie Bradley]

I was watching a storm brewing west of town whilst eating at the Sonic (TMI, I know but I'm putting that in anyway ). I noticed the sky getting darker to the west and some anvil cirrus spreading overhead at my location. I then left for home to see if anything looked interesting on radar (left GR3 running while I was away...). I spotted a cell on radar in extreme Wrn White County that had a SVR TS on it due to hail. I noticed a small appendage on its SW side and it had some weak rotation so off I go with the camera, to Floyd, AR to intercept the storm. The storm was tracking ESE around 20 to 25 mph. Here are some pics...

I took this pic at a gravel quarry. The camera was facing NW toward the non rotating wall cloud. The funnel like shapes are cloud tags, not funnels (they were not rotating)
Another pic of the storm, taken at a slightly better location atop a hill, also looking NW. Rising motions were seen, but no rotation. After snapping this pic, the storm began a rather rapid downward trend and was completely gone about 30 to 40 minutes later.

Radar image, roughly the same time frame as the pics above...

I'm sure glad it was my day off and while this wasn't a full fledged supercell, beggers can't be choosers. At least I have a pic that I can call my own
TIA to all that read this post / thread

 

[Gary Stofer]

Friday March 31st, 2006 ~ 6:00 pm

We began our journey westward into Morgan County. There was a lone cell ahead of a well developed MCS that was already well into W Indiana. As this cell was drifting northward it was clear to us that it was basically our only opportunity to catch any sort of rotation. However we left a little too late and it was too close to the incoming squall to intercept, so we turned around and headed east. A few minutes later a torn warning was issued for Hendricks county, but it was cancelled a few minutes later. It appeared to be the cell that we had intentions on intercepting.

As we neared safe shelter, Dave and I noticed what appeared to be a wall cloud to our west. Our first shots were taken on Honeycreek Road north of CR 500N in Johnson County.

We continued to follow the wall north of Smith Valley for another 5-10 minutes, and it appeared as though it was dissipating at that point. We took shelter in preparation for the approaching storm which was reported to contain hail (it did, dime and some nickel). About this time a tornado warning was again issued for this cell, it was near the Rocklane area. We attempted to catch the cell but it was too late, and we ended the night with a nice lightning show. This same wall cloud redeveloped and was consumed by the approaching line, putting down a tornado that was at one time F2 in strength, damaging/destroying many homes and businesses (see http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_sto...d=2063&source=0 for damage path and images)

More images here:
http://www.wrathofnature.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2