Best Storm Structure

[Joey Ketcham]

I was going through some of my chase pictures tonight and came across one from back in 2004, I chased this storm up in Nebraska I think it was in May and of all the photographs I have of storm structures this one is by far the best one. The striation on this thing was very impressive and I honestly do not remember the exact date of this one, I wish I did. I know it was in May, I know it was before May 29th, 2004.. I am thinking it was May 22nd.

So of all the pictures you got of storm structure only, not tornadoes, which one do you favor out of all of them and would consider it to be the best or among the best?

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[Jim Saueressig]

That's a real nice shot....

I think my all time favorite was this first one below. I have however been limited by not having a good wide angle lens so full storm structure shots are uncommon from me.



The best full structure was this year at a distance.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Guessing this should just be in the weather sections not bar and grill.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/wp/04-1400wp.jpg

04 was full of some crazy structure. I'd have to say that was the most unique structure I've ever seen during that point in its life. It was just a crazy inflow monster right then. The base out from that ragged part became this strangely smoothed form.

Couple others from that time.

It's most evident on the left side of the images. Almost like smoothed out drywall mud. All of it forming like that from intense inflow into the storm. Wish I had the GR images of that still, as I think it showed up very well as a large intense area of inflow even far from radars in ne NE west of Sioux City.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/04-5-28.htm

 

[Laura Duchesne]

May 31, 2006 in eastern Colorado into western Kansas. Not a supercell but the dramatic appearance and colors were amazing to watch.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Mine would be a toss up. I would say that May 2007 supercell out by Hill City was pretty spectacular, but honestly the most vigorous explosive development I have ever seen was out by Thedford NE way back in June 1999. I have not seen such well developed convective knuckles, gear motions, and a full fledged tornado as I saw that day with Jeff. This was during the early days of the DOW. This was 6500 CAPEs....50 kts plus of deep layer shear, and one awesome boundary. It was thermonuclear !!

 

[Andrea Griffa]

As far as storm structure probably these are my favourite ones: the first one was taken on may 13th 2005 near Cromwell,tx and the next one on may 23th 2007 not far from Canadian,Tx (mods,wouldn't it be better to move this thread in weather and chasing?)

 

[Verne Carlson]

It's hard to pick just one but June 2, 2005 Limon, CO had some amazing structure. A close second would be May 22, 2007 Hill City, KS

Here's June 2:

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Well I've seen some crazy storm structure since I have began storm chasing, but one that was just ridiculous was the Greensburg storm.

I know the last one has a picture of a tornado, but the structure above it is just incredible.

Some other notables storms I have intercepted with awesome structure include the May 29, 2008 Tipton, KS mothership, April 24, 2007 the Nickerson, KS awesome LP supercell, and the March 30, 2008 Rocky, OK supercell

 

[Brian Emfinger]

From 2007 (and when I didn't know what I was doing with my camera):

 

[Danny Neal]

My most recent one. Pretty cool I guess. I have a couple others that I will post if I can find them.

Approaching tornado warned supercell on 9/22/06 - Unfortunately for me the storms to the south choked off this storm

Love this shot. I did a time lapse through stills of developing severe thunderstorms near my house. All the pics from this experience are here.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

May 31, 2006 in eastern Colorado into western Kansas. Not a supercell but the dramatic appearance and colors were amazing to watch.

Those are nicely done Laura!

Some other notables storms I have intercepted with awesome structure include the May 29, 2008 Tipton, KS mothership, April 24, 2007 the Nickerson, KS awesome LP supercell, and the March 30, 2008 Rocky, OK supercell

I would like to have seen more of this one from you Mike: ( seems there aren't many of these this close and I missed it )



Seeing all these pics make me realize I need to get further West next spring.

 

[Willoughby Owen]

May 22 2007, Hill City KS without a doubt!

 

[Skip Talbot]

Although far from the best structure ever. Here is some nice supercell structure from June 4 this year near Kearney, NE:

This base turned into a very dramatic roll cloud later on:

The best stacked plates I've seen were on a mini sup just south of Kankakee, IL on April 20, 2004:

http://www.skip.cc/chase/040420/chase03lg.jpg

 

[Sam Sagnella]

A couple of instances immediately come to mind. October 14, 2007 near Martha OK and
May 23, 2007 near Lipscomb TX; I believe this is the same cell as Andrea posted.
All images property of Tommy Winning and myself.

10/14/07: Rapidly developing supercell; note the intense wet RFD
(and associated rain foot [feet?]) behind the developing wall cloud.

A couple of minutes later; note the well-developed beaver tail extending
NEwd (rightward) from the wall cloud.

The wall cloud eventually gusted-out and became an angry, ground-scraping shelf which
was kicking up a substantial amount of dirt.

May 23, 2007. This was a day of unreal structure. First image (second storm of the day) shows a
well-developed and intensely-rotating wall cloud on a classic supercell in NW Oklahoma.
This storm had grapefruit-sized hail reported with it at one point.

That storm weakened rapidly as it passed N of the warm front (without producing).

An hour later and ~50mi SW, we caught the most insane HP supercell I've EVER seen.
Photos don't do any of these justice, really.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Structure award goes to the tornadic supercell on June 7th just 15 miles south of my house. Incredible straited meso:

The June 6th 2007 Murdo/badlands,SD storm still ranks #1 for amazing colors and contrast: