Is this a wall cloud?

[Steven H]

This picture was taken on May 21, 1:32PM. I’m just wondering is this a wall cloud.

 

[Mark Gressman Jr]

I'll take a stab at this since no one else has chimed in. More photos or vid is needed for a better ID. I looked at archived radar, and if this cell was to your WSW, it had little to no rotation. It could still be a non-rotating wall cloud, but my amateur way of determining is to see if it's pointing towards the core. Not enough evidence to say for sure... sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[rdale]

Possibly - but remember that a wall cloud is pretty common and means nothing really other than being able to say “that’s a wall cloud.”

From a spotting perspective, you only report it when there is rotation too.

 

[Steven H]

Thanks for the information guys.

 

[Laney Cole]

So embarrassing. So I shot many photos of this shelf cloud coming in, and this little guy on the bottom right appeared. And I’m thinking, is that a wall cloud? And after a few minutes of debating, I submitted a SKYWARN Report.

Now I would think the shelf cloud was self evident. Obviously I see that, and I reported :
Time, location, possible wall cloud.

The reply was: This appears to be a shelf cloud, thanks for your report.

I’m aware of the shelf cloud, it’s the lowering on the cloud that persisted for several minutes I’m referring to.

My day went from “yay, I captured a nice little shelf cloud” to being sad and embarrassed.

Has anyone else ever made a mistake on a report or misidentified an slc “scary looking cloud” as a wall cloud?

 

[Mark Gressman Jr]

I wouldn't let it bother you, live and learn. It definitely would've gotten my attention too. The whales mouth can cause some interesting movement on the leading edge.

 

[Brandon Jones]

When I was in 5th grade at the end of the school year I saw a non-rotating wall cloud (back then I didn't know that it had to be rotating to produce a tornado) and I was scared and I thought that there was going to be a tornado. So I was watching it and later it disappeared then I felt better. That was one of the scariest storms I've ever been in.

 

[JamesCaruso]

So embarrassing. So I shot many photos of this shelf cloud coming in, and this little guy on the bottom right appeared. And I’m thinking, is that a wall cloud? And after a few minutes of debating, I submitted a SKYWARN Report.

Now I would think the shelf cloud was self evident. Obviously I see that, and I reported :
Time, location, possible wall cloud.

The reply was: This appears to be a shelf cloud, thanks for your report.

I’m aware of the shelf cloud, it’s the lowering on the cloud that persisted for several minutes I’m referring to.

My day went from “yay, I captured a nice little shelf cloud” to being sad and embarrassed.

Has anyone else ever made a mistake on a report or misidentified an slc “scary looking cloud” as a wall cloud?

Even after 25+ years of chasing, I don't always know what I am seeing and/or misidentify stuff. And I think it's fairly common to *want* to see something (i.e., hope it's a wall cloud) and sort of will it into being What's even worse is failing to realize that you *are* seeing a rotating wall cloud, as I once did earlier in my chase career, leaving an area that later tornado'd