Drew.Gardonia
Well it did appear to be rotating, albeit very slowly. I just got my recovered video, processing it now and then headed up to school to upload it so I can post it. regardless of what it is, it was freaking cool to see!
Brandon Clement
EF4
I have a long video in HD of this storm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfU9Fg8L2hY
This was not a true Beaver tail, it was closer to an inflow stinger. It looked more like a half of wall cloud. It was certainly rotating but never rotated violently like it was going to drop a tornado. Now sections of it were rotating pretty intensely at times and just on the back side was the main updraft and it was rotating pretty good. At one point over I-40/I-240 in Memphis I was almost sure it was going to drop a wedge. I've seen many supercells and seen them in all forms but haven't ever seen anything like this. The inflow tail on this storm was very obvious and went as far as you could see, this was not inflow. The cloud section maintained almost an exact form for at least 45 minutes as it went from Arkansas all the way to the NE side of Memphis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfU9Fg8L2hY
This was not a true Beaver tail, it was closer to an inflow stinger. It looked more like a half of wall cloud. It was certainly rotating but never rotated violently like it was going to drop a tornado. Now sections of it were rotating pretty intensely at times and just on the back side was the main updraft and it was rotating pretty good. At one point over I-40/I-240 in Memphis I was almost sure it was going to drop a wedge. I've seen many supercells and seen them in all forms but haven't ever seen anything like this. The inflow tail on this storm was very obvious and went as far as you could see, this was not inflow. The cloud section maintained almost an exact form for at least 45 minutes as it went from Arkansas all the way to the NE side of Memphis.
Jason Boggs
Drew.Gardonia
here's the video from my perspective (the east side of downtown). this is the video I thought was lost from my camera, that I was able to recover.
Watch video >
you can see a full hi-def video here as well
http://smu.gs/j2f5Wy
Watch video >
you can see a full hi-def video here as well
http://smu.gs/j2f5Wy
Zack Hargrove
EF2
I see the rising motion around it Drew, but I don't really see much rotation at all from the video. I still say you're looking at an inflow tail or a very low skinny wall cloud. Pretty crazy though. To me, if definitely not a funnel... and from what I remember from radar at this time, the rotation had weakened substantially as it was over Memphis.
Drew.Gardonia
thanks for the input Zach! The only visible rotation was in the last 90 seconds of the video up near the upper right side of it. but it is what it is I suppose.
Brandon Clement
EF4
For the most part the cloud in question just slowly rotated the entire time, more or less was rotating with the entire cell above it. At times small sections of the cloud would put off funnels and at times the main inflow just behind the storm put off large areas of rotation.
The lowering as a whole certainly wasn't a funnel, it wasn't really a beaver tail and absolutely was not an inflow tail. The best description I've found of it is an Inflow Stinger, not sure how I remember that term but here is the definition.
The lowering as a whole certainly wasn't a funnel, it wasn't really a beaver tail and absolutely was not an inflow tail. The best description I've found of it is an Inflow Stinger, not sure how I remember that term but here is the definition.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream//append/glossary_i.htm
Zack Hargrove
EF2
I would somewhat disagree. At the end of the video, I believe you are right and it didn't look like an inflow tail anymore. However, I think it very well could have been an inflow tail earlier in the video.
Rick Schmidt
EF3
It sure looks like a tail cloud to me. I have seen lots of them. It's an area of inflow, and BTW, is one of the most called in features of false funnel clouds.
Jason Foster
Boggs...yeah...OK...Beavers tail is what I thought it was...never paid attention to a "tail cloud". I guess I probably miss spoke saying it was part of the "wall cloud". I associate it with "the meso". Seen plenty. When you brought up tail clouds that threw me because I had forgotten that little guy. They are usually minor and pretty much insignificant compared to the beaver's tail. Another interesting thing....none of the texts I have mention 'beaver's tail' but do clearly point out 'tail clouds' (in particular, Bluestein's 1999 "Tornado Alley" book.
So my whole original point stands...that I'm extremely surprised that an NWS person would call Drew's feature in the photo a Beaver's Tail. From the texts though, I wouldn't call the feature a tail cloud either. I guess I can believe Beaver's Tail some, but some leaps I'm not willing to make are there. I wish the video was a little more stationary, but that's fine. I didn't do so good on my last video (tripod Foster....tripod!)
So my whole original point stands...that I'm extremely surprised that an NWS person would call Drew's feature in the photo a Beaver's Tail. From the texts though, I wouldn't call the feature a tail cloud either. I guess I can believe Beaver's Tail some, but some leaps I'm not willing to make are there. I wish the video was a little more stationary, but that's fine. I didn't do so good on my last video (tripod Foster....tripod!)
Joshua Nall
EF4
What Skip said as to what the feature is. I was just behind the storm hung up in traffic before it moved N of Memphis. Then just S of it as it went just N of the city. Half a wall cloud is a good description, with the feature in question being the half that would slant toward the rain. I have several pictures which I can post some time. Haven't even had time to eat and sleep properly lately, haha. There was rotation associated with the main part of the updraft back behind this at one point which is obvious in my photos. In addition to this there were some twisty cloud tags or scud now and then, that's about all I saw. Never looked real threatening to me.
I don't even think I would call it a tail cloud, as I didn't really see any obvious wall cloud in the video. Tail clouds, by definition, do not exist in the absence of a wall cloud. I agree with Skip in that the feature in question was just some inflow tail, likely created by warm environmental air being lifted over the top of an advancing cold pool. This is pretty strong forcing, thus giving the rising motion you saw. At no point was that a funnel cloud or a tornado. I would say that 90% of funnel clouds and tornadoes have a laminar shape - a smooth appearance with a solid fine edge - rather unmistakable in my opinion. Although you do see wispy funnels and tornadoes here and there, I've never seen one that didn't contain strong/violent upward motion with it. The feature in question did not have that.
John Farley
Supporter
I am quite sure it was an inflow tail. I think what Joshua says about rotation farther back is important, though. If you look between 5:10 and 5:20 in Drew's video, you will see that there was a lowering much farther back, and that is where the rotation likely was. TWC had a picture that quite clearly showed the inflow tail feature and another lowering farther to the southwest. I was coming up on the storm from the west at the time it was over West Memphis, and noticed a lowered area and saw a power flash under it, so this must have been about the time the straight-line wind damage occurred there. I think the lowering I saw was probably the one associated with the meso, since it matched up well with the hook echo on radar, but I was pretty far away and looking at it through the rain, so can't say for sure. There's a picture of it in my chase report for the day, so feel free to take a look. FWIW the storm was not as strong by the time it got to West Memphis as it was earlier when it produced one tornado, and quite possibly two, north of Hughes near Greasy Corner.
Jason Persoff
EF3
I'm on a cruddy motel wifi right now, so the YouTube video won't load adequately for me to gauge storm motion.
In my experience, anything that differs dramatically from the LCLs in the region particularly the more of an angle present between the structure and the horizontal plane, the more likely it is to be an outflow feature or cloud tag-type of structure getting ingested into an updraft. Note that the LCLs in the vicinity of the structure were high and the feature in question was nearly ground-level connecting at a near 45 degree angle to the base. That angle of condensation is much more characteristic of a roll cloud and it is located at the interface of a rain foot and an updraftish RFB.
Also note the undulating pattern on the underside of the cloud in some of the frame grabs of the video. The underside of the cloud appears to be a shelf cloud due to its "boiling sky" kind of appearance. In all likelihood, the screen shot taken when the the cloud most looked like a funnel (one of the last of the group on the 1st page) was likely taken along the wind shift line. I'd bet on either side of that feature, winds were coming from opposite directions at the surface.
One of the most important observations any chase can make when trying to sort through storm features is: "what is the sfc wind doing right now in relation to this cloud feature?" A healthy updraft should "suck" winds toward it vigorously (the winds should be blowing almost DIRECTLY toward the base in question in tornadic storms). If the winds are pointing at odd directions to the storm (or worse, the winds are blowing out from the storm), then chances are this is an accessory cloud "fooler" that can easily look like a funnel or potentially tornadic storm.
This year, particularly on 5/22, before the Joplin tornado, the multicellular mess that was present in SE KS created an amazing mess of outflow features playing "inflow look alikes". It made structural identification nearly impossible, save for many of the "wall clouds" we saw that day were undercut by cold outflow air (and were shelf clouds).
Last: I think a term better than beaver tail is inflow band. Inflow bands can be low level (such as a wall cloud tail) or mid-level (more commonly above 850mb or around "beaver tail" level, and can occasionally border on high-level (I saw that on the back of the Hallam, NE storm in 2004). Again, the sfc obs may help you sort that out as traditionally, most feeder bands are mid-level. A storm generating intense winds aimed at the notch (the spot between a wall cloud and an inflow band) would make me much more convinced of an inflow feature being present.
FWIW, it was a cool looking cloud. I appreciate you sharing it
.
In my experience, anything that differs dramatically from the LCLs in the region particularly the more of an angle present between the structure and the horizontal plane, the more likely it is to be an outflow feature or cloud tag-type of structure getting ingested into an updraft. Note that the LCLs in the vicinity of the structure were high and the feature in question was nearly ground-level connecting at a near 45 degree angle to the base. That angle of condensation is much more characteristic of a roll cloud and it is located at the interface of a rain foot and an updraftish RFB.
Also note the undulating pattern on the underside of the cloud in some of the frame grabs of the video. The underside of the cloud appears to be a shelf cloud due to its "boiling sky" kind of appearance. In all likelihood, the screen shot taken when the the cloud most looked like a funnel (one of the last of the group on the 1st page) was likely taken along the wind shift line. I'd bet on either side of that feature, winds were coming from opposite directions at the surface.
One of the most important observations any chase can make when trying to sort through storm features is: "what is the sfc wind doing right now in relation to this cloud feature?" A healthy updraft should "suck" winds toward it vigorously (the winds should be blowing almost DIRECTLY toward the base in question in tornadic storms). If the winds are pointing at odd directions to the storm (or worse, the winds are blowing out from the storm), then chances are this is an accessory cloud "fooler" that can easily look like a funnel or potentially tornadic storm.
This year, particularly on 5/22, before the Joplin tornado, the multicellular mess that was present in SE KS created an amazing mess of outflow features playing "inflow look alikes". It made structural identification nearly impossible, save for many of the "wall clouds" we saw that day were undercut by cold outflow air (and were shelf clouds).
Last: I think a term better than beaver tail is inflow band. Inflow bands can be low level (such as a wall cloud tail) or mid-level (more commonly above 850mb or around "beaver tail" level, and can occasionally border on high-level (I saw that on the back of the Hallam, NE storm in 2004). Again, the sfc obs may help you sort that out as traditionally, most feeder bands are mid-level. A storm generating intense winds aimed at the notch (the spot between a wall cloud and an inflow band) would make me much more convinced of an inflow feature being present.
FWIW, it was a cool looking cloud. I appreciate you sharing it
.Drew.Gardonia
I appreciate all the replies and insight that everyone gave in this thread! While not a funnel or tornado, it still was cool to watch it and glad I got some neat footage of it.
