How in the world do you spot rain wrapped tornadoes?

[Raymond Mason]

I am not talking about the kind of tornadoes that you see touch down with no rain, then later get wrapped in rain. I am mainly talking about tornadoes that were born in rain and darkness. I have seen on videos were chasers can look into rain and say "I see a tornado" then later mark it in the video to make it obvious.

I would think radar would play a huge part, but how can anyone physically see some of these tornadoes? Do you just look at a suspicious looking rain shaft and observe really hard?

 

[Ethan Schisler]

Positioning really honestly. You have to get closer to get good views of a tornado that is usually rainwrapped from a distance. You've gotta know what you are looking at too. That is why going after tornadoes that are wrapped up in bears cage precipitation isn't for the novice chaser. Not preaching here, just saying, if you don't know what you are looking for, you shouldn't attempt it. Also using radar is a big help to, if you know a storm has a strong couplet on it and then you can kind of gauge what to look for in that sense...or whether its worth the risk at all (IE violent tornado wrapped in rain) to get close enough to observe it.

 

[Royce Sheibal]

I come from Nebraska, Land of Rain-Wrapped Wedges. Best ways to tell your HP supercell is dropping a TOR:
1. Too much inflow. If you're correctly positioned in the inflow notch, if there is no tornado the air should be near calm, as the air is moving mostly vertically. If there is a sig tornado in the HP, you'll be getting hammered by a 30-60mph inflow from 2,5, even 10 miles away.
2. The Wall Cloud that never ends. An HP that can't produce a tornado likely doesn't have a fully formed and constant wall cloud. A HP that is likely to form a tornado will maintain a strong and very large wall cloud with attendant scuds along the flanking line and in the inflow notch.
3. From a distance the rain shaft is too solid/opaque. Normally a rain shaft has a little bit of sun-penetration and transparency from a distant view. If it looks just like a giant blob, or looks overly pale/white, you might an HP tornado, or gorilla hail. Either is bad.
4. When all else fails, look at the radar. HP's are so huge, they are very unlikely to produce a tornado without a large (though sometimes shallow) radar sig.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I'd say more that it's a consequence of our "must see something everytime we chase to please our fans" mentality than anything. You can say there's pretty crazy motion of the rain, or judge inflow or radar, but it's hard to know if there's a rainwrapped beast without being right in it.

This is about as close as you have to be to see these things. Usually even closer.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

When I chased the Mapleton, IA tornado with some friends, we saw a rain-wrapped side more so than anything else. While it was very hard to see the tornado, a proper silhouette could be defined within it. It even looks better on the crappy video camera I was using at the time.

 

[Ethan Lang]

I am also located in the land of rain wrapped wedges ( central Nebraska) and yes everything about what the previous guys have said about radar and getting close. Also listen for a roar as well as continually look for damage. That was a big tell tale signs for the first time I got on a rain wrapped wedge

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