Bogus Katrina photos by chasers?

[Eric Flescher]

My wife sent me some interesting storm photos entitled .

There were some real nice wall clouds ,stormcells that look awfully familiar.I am interested to know whether these are legit or taken by stormchasers and posted without their permission?There are some hurricane wave surge stuff.


I have not been able to locate these pics on a website.

 

[Michael P. Morris]

Without looking at them, I would have to guess that they were Mike H's considering that this same sort of thing has happened before.

 

[Eric Flescher]

thought so

I thought that some of the wall cloud super cell pics in particular looked liked Mike H 's pics. Thanks

 

[Bob Schafer]

Was it these? The first time I saw these pics was in 2003 (and that's when I saved them as well), and they were supposedly pics of Isabel. Since then, I've seen the same two pics attributed to Katrina.

 

[Marcus Opitz]

Back in '05 there were many pics floating around the internet claiming to be katrina comming to shore. These pics were clearly supercells that were likley taken from the actual photographer w/o thier permission. I got into many arguments at the office explaining that the pics in the various chain emails were NOT Katrina but of a thunderstorm somewhere...

 

[cdcollura]

Good day,

Was it these? The first time I saw these pics was in 2003 (and that's when I saved them as well), and they were supposedly pics of Isabel. Since then, I've seen the same two pics attributed to Katrina.

I am not sure about those two pictures, but those are CLEARLY of SHELF CLOUDS and are NOT directly associated with a hurricane.

These MIGHT be shelf clouds associated with feeder bands in the fringes of a hurricane, but the ship picture does not really justify a hurricane as if that was open ocean, and a hurricane was close enough to cause lines of storms, there should be large waves and / or swell present - The sea is nearly smooth in that shot.

Mike Hollingshead's photos of supercells were indeed passed off as Katrina pictures as (whoever used them) was supposed to present the fear and death in Katrina with some SPECTACULAR storm picture to make a real impact.

For the average family and even my grandparents, that would be like "wow, that Katrina looked like that?"

But to a trained eye, and storm chaser / expert, we all recognize what these pictures are, and supercells / tornados are far removed from hurricanes and typhoons in size, structure, and formation.

Being a hurricane chaser myself, and chased many tropical systems in my life, I have NEVER seen really good structure associated with any tropical cyclone storms.

The storms in a tropical system are often rain-wrapped, have almost no structure, any supercell storms within are short lived with shallow mesocyclones, and look nothing like those shelf cloud pictures, let alone a supercell shot from Mike Hollinghead.

To see structure in a hurricane, you need to be in space looking down or at extremely high altitude (40,000 feet or higher), or in the eye looking at the eyewall cloud.

In the picture above, this is the BEST shot I have of a line of storms associated with a tropical cyclone in all my years of chasing tropical systems.

In the picture above, this is a SUPERCELL storm in Hurricane Jeanne in 2004. It looks like "mush" but was tornado warned - Can you pick out the wall cloud and clear slot? Look closely - Hint: Just to the left of the pole.

 

[Tony Cook]

Hurricane Rita tornado footage

Most of the time, I would agree that mini-supercells and tornadoes in Hurricanes do not make for easy observation. I have chased several times in Hurricane rainbands, and have only observed a handful of bonafide wall clouds, and never a tornado. (Well, I did see a tornado in 1985 from a rainband of Tropical Storm Danny, but wasn't technically chasing that day).

One notable exception is from Hurricane Rita, 25Sep2005. A tower-cam in Tuscaloosa AL captured a highly visible tornado with many classic features. The Birmingham ABC affilliate showed the entire thing live, with meteorologist James Spann at the helm:

http://beta.abc3340.com/static/weather/video/tcltornado092505.wmv

This is not the first tornado that the Tuscaloosa tower cam has captured live, either. Tuscaloosa County is the Alabama tornado capital for the last 10 years.


TonyC

 

[David Drummond]

That second picture with the ship, seems I remember a few years back when that surfaced and it was taken on one of the Great Lakes. I could be wrong about that though.

 

[Eric Flescher]

no not these

No not these . One of them is a huge dark supercell with a dark wallcloud on the bottom . Sure it was Mike H.s
I will see if I can find a link of those pics

:::

Was it these? The first time I saw these pics was in 2003 (and that's when I saved them as well), and they were supposedly pics of Isabel. Since then, I've seen the same two pics attributed to Katrina.

 

[Brett Adair]

Most of the time, I would agree that mini-supercells and tornadoes in Hurricanes do not make for easy observation. I have chased several times in Hurricane rainbands, and have only observed a handful of bonafide wall clouds, and never a tornado. (Well, I did see a tornado in 1985 from a rainband of Tropical Storm Danny, but wasn't technically chasing that day).

One notable exception is from Hurricane Rita, 25Sep2005. A tower-cam in Tuscaloosa AL captured a highly visible tornado with many classic features. The Birmingham ABC affilliate showed the entire thing live, with meteorologist James Spann at the helm:

http://beta.abc3340.com/static/weather/video/tcltornado092505.wmv

This is not the first tornado that the Tuscaloosa tower cam has captured live, either. Tuscaloosa County is the Alabama tornado capital for the last 10 years.


TonyC

You can say that again. During our outbreaks....just go to TCL and sit. You will see a tornado. I have seen a few in that county.

 

[B Ozanne]

Drudge had that second photo with the ship as their headline when Isabel was approaching.

 

[Zach Bailey]

Here are two good articles I keep around whenever these rumors pop up...as they are prone to do, especially around hurricane season:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/storm.asp
http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/isabel.asp

 

[Bill Hark]

I usually refer several of my friends to snopes each time there is a major hurricane and those images are sent to me.

As for hurricane storm structure, I have seen some nice structure in tropical remnants while chasing.

Below is a video still from James City Virginia of a tornado during a hurricane induced tornado outbreak Aug 30, 2004. It is one of many hurricane induced tornadoes on my Eastern Fury collection.

**It was taken by Larry Waltrip, not my video***

Below is an image from Hurricane Ivan remnants that I took just north of Richmond, Va.

Below are two images taken during remnants of Hurricane Katrina of a developing wall cloud near Altavista, Virginia. The chaser in the foreground is Dave Hoadley who I ran into while I was out chasing.

Don't believe those supercells and gustfronts as hurricane storm structure but also don't blow off opportunities to chase tropical systems even a couple of days after landfall.

Bill Hark