I need help with some forms

[Marko Korosec]

Hello all,

I just returned from a quick chase here in SW Slovenia...and I saw something I've never seen before, so I am not sure what it could be...a funnel, a tornado or anything similar to this...the whole thing was rotating fastly, when rain hit me it was RR over 300mm/h including some hail.

Here are some pics..

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

Heavy downpour after I saw those forms:
1)

Hope you guys can tell me some descriptions for these forms. :wink:

Regards,
Marko

 

[James Siler]

In pics 3 and 4 could you tell if there was anything coming off the ground. Like dirt, leaves, small woodland creatures?! Cause byt the last pic it looks like something was getting it's act together!

 

[Dennis Gulley]

:? Sure looks like something going on there. Almost looks like there are some multiple vortex action going on. If you look closely on pix #2 you can see what looks like a condensation funnel on the ground. Im guessing all this
happened rather quickly.
Nice Pix

Dennis

 

[Dan Robinson]

That certainly looks interesting! Are there any radar images available from this event? Visually, the motion would be the key, that is, fast rotation with the feature on the ground. I've seen many fog formations during thunderstorms that took on tornado-like shapes:

But in my case here, the fog was barely moving - rising very, very slowly and not rotating.

 

[Karen Politte]

I guess the first and only question has to be: Did you see any rotation at cloud base or within the "scuddy" stuff on the ground??

You look like you were close enough to discern ANY rotation that may have been there.

If no: It's a scud bomb or fog. (Cloud bases look very tropical and this may be the case).

If yes: Probably a wall cloud/possibly weak tornado.

KR

 

[Bill Tabor]

I'd venture to say since you mentioned you were seeing a lot of rotation that this is probably a storm inflow area and these are very weak funnels aka 'attempted acts'. It appears some may briefly touch. True, if they touch technically they are tornadoes, but probably very weak ones. That is assuming it fulfills the criteria Karen mentioned.

 

[Shane Adams]

If you saw rotation, it was probably a tornado. The thing that I'm interested in is how far apart were these images taken? Because the structure of the "anomoli" is very different from pic to pic. If these images were taken just seconds apart, I'd think there's no doubt this was a tornado.

In the second image, there's a transparent finger of condensation on the ground that isn't present in the third image. If these were moments apart, that suggests rapid changes within the condensation which would not be indicative of fog/scud.

On the other hand, if these pics were minutes apart, then I'd say it's most-likely fog/scud.

 

[Marko Korosec]

Hi again,
let me try to describe it more...

The clouds were about 200-300m above the ground and rotating pretty fast, in lower parts from S-SE, higher they were moving fro SW directions. I saw small debris that were pushing up from the ground, as Dennis mentioned I was also thinking of condensation funnel on the 2nd pic, I noticed a few of them in this time, pretty small and tight. So maybe this could be a multiple vortex? They appeared from time to time, all happened in less than 2min, pics were taken about 5-10s apart one to another.

I've seen such formations (which Dan mentioned) a few times in the past, but also there was no rotation at all, that was the reason I got confused today, it was all rotating as hell! I did not have a laptop with me, so I'll try to get any radar images from some friends somehow, will post them later.

So for the conclusion; fast rotating clouds, tight (condensation) funnels, some debris.

Unfortunatelly I don't have any video, I just had a SLR camera. I also had problems taking pics while it was heavily raining meanwhile.

Thanks,
Marko

 

[Dan Robinson]

This looks similar one of the tornado events from the Texas supercell on June 12 of this year. Did what you saw look anything like this?

Windows media, 4.2MB:
http://stormscenes.com/reels/txn-061205d.wmv

Here is a screen capture of this tornado that looks similar to what you posted above:
http://wvlightning.com/june122005/june12e1.shtml

 

[Marko Korosec]

Yes, thats it! This video shows pretty similar rotations to those I 've seen yesterday! Thanks, Dan!

Best regards,
Marko