Internal structure shown

[Dennis Dennison]

I spotted this video online-its of a waterspout over what appears to be rather shallow water. Why I am posting a link to it, is becuase of what is seen. The waterspout was said to have formed over the land next to the lake-thus a small tornado and moved over the water. The funnel is mostly clear-and due to this you can see it is NOT a single funnel, but many funnels rotating around each other-each funnel is rather small, but the rotational speeds of them are very high, and they all revolve within what most would consider a funnel--I feel this is a video worth studying, as the movements are quite complex, and could further understanding of how a tornado actually operates.


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8b7_1227402716

 

[rdale]

Nice video find... Looked more landspouty to me.

 

[Jeff Richardson]

By the look of the vortex structure and movement, I'd put this in the land/waterspout category. Unless I'm imagining things, it looks like it briefly took on a multiple vortex structure which actually is quite common and can even develop in large dust devils.

 

[Dennis Dennison]

All is true-but the main thing of the video is the movements of the multi vortici within a funnel structure-they are clearly displayed, and perhaps would be of some study value in into the inner workings.
es

 

[Dann Cianca]

The Eleven-Mile Reservoir tornado was most likely non-supercell. Normally, this would have been an easy call, but ironically, a rare mountain-supercell was just off to the west of this storm. I was working at the flood center in Denver that day and there was some convection up over the mountains. I got called in because a nice storm popped up on the northwest side of town and rode the foothills due south. I was surprised to see the tornado report pop up on spotter network and then have a seemingly innocuous storm be warned. I suppose it is still possible that this storm was supercellular but the radar scan there was showing no elevated rotation.

I saved a radar image of the later supercell which traveled south along the foothills. You can see it here: http://blog.bigskyconvection.com/2008/08/colorado-mountain-supercell.html (Click on the radar image for a large version)

You can see the tornado report well to the southwest of the huge supercell. The radar image came approximately one hour past the original tornado report .

So, I guess I'm just being devil's advocate. The environment was favorable for turning storms that day. However, there is a ton of video of this tornado (including some shot directly below, looking up) ... and all of it makes it appear to be a non-supercell tornado. Youtube it ... seriously. There's a guy on a boat right next to the thing, staring straight up. Gorgeous footage. Definitely looks like a spout.


Reports from that day.

PS: The other supercell had a tornado report ... but no one ever saw it. I could see the wall cloud from my position far to the north, but it eventually got shrouded by the downdraft and I lost sight. (I wasn't chasing, I was on a rooftop downtown Denver at work). There was damage reported, but it could have been RFD tree fall.