Odd Satellite Image

[James Gustina]

So I noticed this on a couple of satellite images not too long ago of the MCC over Nebraska. I've never seen an anvil do anything close to this where it has almost a cirrus bubble around it. Does anyone know what caused it? Just weak upper level winds or a really powerful updraft?

 

[rdale]

Looks like an anvil shield to me, a little more transparent than most "textbook" pics but looking at the loop that's all I'm noticing.

 

[James Gustina]

Thanks rdale. Yeah i've never seen it look like that before. Thanks

 

[Jason Foster]

Must have been a live link...because it's all black now...

...what was the area of interest, I'm curious to go back and check the archive?

 

[James Gustina]

Eastern Nebraska as that bow echo was forming up.

 

[Jeff Duda]

It was very interesting to see because it doesn't happen often. I'm pretty sure what you saw was what Rob was mentioning with the cirrus shield, but due to the weak shear and speed of propagation of the clouds, there wasn't much redirection or ventilation of the anvil. You can see the fanning off of the cirrus clouds in a clockwise fashion as time wears on. This is much like a tropical system in nature.

 

[James Gustina]

Yeah it was a really odd complex. I was thinking the updrafts going in there were just that powerful to give off that much. I've never seen an anvil shield do that.