My first photographed Wall Cloud

[Tim Newman]

I presented these pictures to Chance Hayes at WFO ICT and he agreed with my conclusion that this was indeed a wall cloud. These pics were taken Sunday May 25th just west of Grigston, KS. We were on our way back to Scott Lake where we had our campsite when we noticed the sky getting dark in that direction. I called my wife 200 miles away to ask her if there was any weather reports from our area. She told me that Scott County was under a TOR and a funnel had been reported just south of Scott City. Just then, I noticed the wall cloud in the pictures. I later found out this produced a small tornado between Grigston and Manning, KS. Just thought I would share my first photos. I've seen wall clouds and tornadoes before this one, but this was the first time I had a camera.

Enjoy

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

http://picasaweb.google.com/trebor171/IowaStormChase#5224184865113416482
http://picasaweb.google.com/trebor171/IowaStormChase#5224184714483501746

These shots were not my first wall cloud shots , but I like the color and depth thay they provided.
Also, they were in my very own back yard this year! I was pretty close; a habit that I gained.
Questionable habit...

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Personally, I'm not sure I'd call any of the above wall clouds, but that's just me. If it's slanted, the lower end should point towards the precip core, not away from it. To me they should be more inflow driven lowerings, than outflow driven ones. Outflow driven low clouds will point down and away from the precip core. It makes it pretty easy to tell the difference between legit clouds worthy of being labeled wall clouds, as apposed to just low clouds attached to a storm base. Of course there's always "hybrids" that can be transitioning from one to another. Tim's look like they are pretty close to what I'd bother calling a wall cloud. Robert's do not.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Ok. I'll buy that Mike. Problem is - the end of this 'protrusion' was spinning rapidly and had a moment or two where there appeared to be slight 'spin-up' on the ground below it. Technically, that makes it tornado - if the puff on the ground was caused by this 'protrusion. Honestly, I don't know how one may classify it (wall cloud or funnel cloud) - but as a general rule from the spotters guide - any persistant low cloud that rotates can be considered a 'wall cloud' or a 'funnel cloud'. I'm obviously no expert, but can only report what I see. I'll let you decide. I suppose one must consider the other part of the structure to determine what it is. Maybe Tim Vasquez can provide some insight about the picture - too - since this is an educational thread.

BTW - I did want to ask Tim Newman what position he was relative to the storm shot - and the particulars of the camera and the settings he used.
Nice shots - Tim...

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Yeah, there are all sorts of hybrid type clouds in weather. I think clouds need more names, since wall cloud, funnel cloud, and scud cloud seem to be the only ones for these sort of features to chose from. In the absense of a good category, I try to just say what it is, like a rotating low cloud in that case. You can have those and not be a funnel or wall cloud imo. If not, we should be able to!

 

[Chip Redmond]

Rob, had you not mentioned a spin up and rapid rotation I would have never considered your pictures a wall cloud. It does appear to be a low inflow into the thunderstorm and could be easily dubbed a scud cloud. It just seems to me that if it was a funnel it would most likely have a more compact look and not a dragged out look simlar to a fast moving scud. I am by no means an expert however. Where at from the cloud did you see the rotation? Was it more towards the end of the cloud on the left side or more towards the right, the downdraft?

Chip

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Thanks for th question, Chip.
I'm pretty certain that it wasn't a scud. It did have the appearance of a roll cloud that was attached - so it can't be a roll cloud by that definition. The 'protrusion' was attached to the base of a rapidly-changing cell. That is on the right side of the picture - not exactly seen clearly in the picture. Ten minuted before these storm shots were taken, the cell had a black appearance and the base was clearly round and rotating. It morphed quickly into what you see in the links. I'm pretty puzzled by the event -too.

 

[Jayson Prentice]

I think what Rob's pictures may be showing is the very end of the lifespan of the wall cloud on that storm, as he mentioned that previous to these pictures that the wall was much better defined and likely directly underneath of the updraft. What could have likely happened in his instance was that the downdraft finally took over the storm, leading to more outflow dominance and pushing this wall out from the updraft base. That would give it its' angled appearance like an outflow dominant storm would, yet also explain as it was hanging on for its' last few minutes that it was rotating, etc...

Pictures are always hard to discern on whether or not the image shows something. The only proof you have is by the person who took them, as to whether or not there was rotation or any movement whatsoever.

 

[T Melton]

This was my second Wall cloud I have a photo of,we were chasing this one out of Kansas several miles north of Joplin Missouri.I always seem to get tangled up with HP supercells in my quest.

 

[Matt Grans]

This shot was my first violent Shelf cloud visual encounter. It was in Pittsburgh PA during the summer of 07 and got me active in seeking a way to get out to the central plains. Hopefully I'll encounter more of these and more... oddly enough, I took a shot (right after the storm passed) of a Southwest Airliner 737, and it wound up being picked up by the company for their 2009 calendar, for which they gave me R/T tickets anywhere they fly... so I'm using them to get to the action this spring. Kind of a circular tale huh?

By the way... good cameras are great to have, but you can get results like this from a camera as bad as my old broken coolpix point and shoot. It is literally held together with tape.

 

[Chris Bowman]

This my first in-person shelf cloud. It's from over Wichita, KS in early June 2005. This is near 21st and Maize.

 

[Tim Newman]

Personally, I'm not sure I'd call any of the above wall clouds, but that's just me. If it's slanted, the lower end should point towards the precip core, not away from it. To me they should be more inflow driven lowerings, than outflow driven ones. Outflow driven low clouds will point down and away from the precip core. It makes it pretty easy to tell the difference between legit clouds worthy of being labeled wall clouds, as apposed to just low clouds attached to a storm base. Of course there's always "hybrids" that can be transitioning from one to another. Tim's look like they are pretty close to what I'd bother calling a wall cloud. Robert's do not.

Mike,

Thanks for your comments. I should have taken a wider and taller view for reference, as Chance pointed out to me when I asked him for his opinion. The deciding factor for him was the description of what was going on. The slanted portion of the could does indeed point towards the precip core. There was some light rain to the left in the picture, but directly behind me was as clear as a bell. The cloud is rotating but you can't really get that sense in the still photos. That, plus the fact that there was a reported tornado not five minutes after I broke off to go back to camp in that same general location. I was 2 West of Grigston, looking at the storm maybe 1.5 NW of me. Manning is about 5 N of Grigston. Report put the tornado about halfway between Grigston and Manning. Short lived, for sure.

Thanks again, Mike for the comments.

 

[Clarence Bennett]

How about this one. Caught it on May 2nd just after it had touched down northeast of Jackson, TN.

 

[Amymarie]

I took a storm class & the pictures to distinguish these types of clouds were helpful but still confusing. Please post more if you have them.

No picture available. But, I am curious what this would be called:

Driving through the country one afternoon, when there were severe storms in the area, I saw a strange "tint" (for lack of a better word) in the distance. I watched as it approached & realized it was dust I was seeing-a big wall of dust-it seemed to be moving slowly, but as it approached it seemed to be move very quickly. I guess this all happened over about 10-15 minutes. I was sort of horrified, yet mesmerized b/c I hadn't seen anything like it-the whole thing was at least 3-5 miles across & it was rolling horizontally, not spinning like a tornado. I could actually see the dust being picked up & then, the long dust/cloud area turned almost black & seemed to slightly shift so it was coming right at me. It scared the crap out of me & it literally looked like a huge hand or creature, clawing up the dust coming to get me (I know, I can be dramatic-). I drove into a farmhouse just as the blast of wind hit. Luckily, the people ahead of me on the road lived there. We dashed to the basement & I could see the wind bending the trees & hail falling/lotsa rain. It was over fairly quickly & no real damage done. So, was this a supercell & what part of the supercell was this? What was going on here?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

I took a storm class & the pictures to distinguish these types of clouds were helpful but still confusing. Please post more if you have them.

No picture available. But, I am curious what this would be called:

Driving through the country one afternoon, when there were severe storms in the area, I saw a strange "tint" (for lack of a better word) in the distance. I watched as it approached & realized it was dust I was seeing-a big wall of dust-it seemed to be moving slowly, but as it approached it seemed to be move very quickly. I guess this all happened over about 10-15 minutes. I was sort of horrified, yet mesmerized b/c I hadn't seen anything like it-the whole thing was at least 3-5 miles across & it was rolling horizontally, not spinning like a tornado. I could actually see the dust being picked up & then, the long dust/cloud area turned almost black & seemed to slightly shift so it was coming right at me. It scared the crap out of me & it literally looked like a huge hand or creature, clawing up the dust coming to get me (I know, I can be dramatic-). I drove into a farmhouse just as the blast of wind hit. Luckily, the people ahead of me on the road lived there. We dashed to the basement & I could see the wind bending the trees & hail falling/lotsa rain. It was over fairly quickly & no real damage done. So, was this a supercell & what part of the supercell was this? What was going on here?

Thanks in advance!

I'm a newbie and I saw that same thing this year in Storm Lake IA.
I believe that is referred to as a 'microbust'
Or 'rear flank discharge' or 'rfd'.
But it sounds like a microburst to me...