Anvil cloud formation

[Kurt Silvey]

I shot this June 5th, 2006 in central NE, I think I was in northern Greeley County, north and east of Barrtlet at the time. This circular cloud formation formed right on the leading edge of an anvil. I guess I was wondering if anybody has seen this kind of formation before, or knew what it is, or even if it is anything special or not.

 

[Danny Neal]

hey ive seen the same thing on april 14th 2001 it was on the backside of the pratt kansas supercell, i was one of the few that day that actually saw the tornadoes, but i have noticed this before also.........was it stationary? because the one i saw was about 5 miles removed from the main storm about 5000-7000 ft off the ground and was rotating violently but the weird thing was that it was exactly like what you took a picture of

 

[Kurt Silvey]

As far as I could tell it was stationary. This was very high (cirrus level), and it was just in front of the down stream anvil. You can see the leading edge of the anvil to the right. Since it was in front of the downstream anvil, it was located quite far from the updraft, guessing 50+ miles. It just seemed strange and out of the ordinary to me, so I stopped and took a picture. I know there are some cloud experts that visit the board, so I thought maybe someone might know what this is, maybe its nothing. I’ve tried a google search but couldn’t find any pictures that matched this formation. I have a cloud book at home, I’ll have to maybe take a look see tonight, and maybe I post it to WX-Chase, as I know there are cloud folks on there also.