Supercell or not a supercell

[Justin McGinley]

Ok so in these photos that I took last summer is this a supercell or not? And y or y not. And if i can remember this storm produced golf ball sized hail also.

 

[Jason Boggs]

It's kind of hard to tell by the photos. Remember, a supercell is a storm with a persistent rotating updraft. It appears that the photos are taken on the front side (outflow/shelf cloud region) of the storm. Was it isolated or in a line with other storms? If it was isolated, I'd say there's a better chance at it being a supercell, but again it's hard to tell.

 

[Justin McGinley]

It was isolated and if I can remember right it was curving it was going straight south, then it was curving to the southeast.

 

[Skip Talbot]

As Jason noted, I don't think we can tell just from these photos. You've got an outflow feature here. Judging by the curving shape, it looks like it might be driven by a rear flanking downdraft, which are usually a trademark of supercells. Just given these images, its entirely possible its driven by a forward flanking downdraft as well. Storm relative velocity radar would definitely help along with the reflectivity scans (like if we had a nice hook). Although most significant hail is produced by supercells, non supercellular storms can also produce severe hail, so hail alone does not mean supercell. It just means the storm has a strong updraft. Although supercells also have a tendency to turn right, other storms can turn right (or other deviant motion) such as those tracking along a boundary.

But just looking at the photos, its entirely possible we're looking at a gusting out/outflow dominant HP supercell, although the photos don't really prove it.

 

[Justin McGinley]

So if i see another storm like this a picture of the updraft if possible, and a radar pic be helpful?

 

[Nicholas_Scherber]

do you know when and where you took this? the other guys answering your questions are much much better than me, but i think that would help.

 

[Justin McGinley]

I took this on June 20th 2010 I was in Nemaha country Nebraska.

 

[Skip Talbot]

I was in the area (Lincoln) that day, and if my memory serves me right those were supercells (although rather sloppy looking ones visually). They have long tracks of severe weather reports on the storm reports from that day too, also a hint we're dealing with supercells.

Pictures only provide us with certain clues we're looking at a supercell. Obviously if you have a big tilted updraft with a strongly rotating wall cloud under the rain free base, you're looking at a supercell. Otherwise we're looking for some rotation in the storm's base, maybe a rotating wall cloud (non supercells can produce wall clouds but generally not with strong, persistent rotation), maybe a rear flanking downdraft clear slot.

Going back to the definition Jason provided, a supercell is defined by a deep, persistently rotating updraft. You really need storm relative velocity radar to confirm that.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I remember that day. I turned around in Beatrice and headed home, driving through the same convection in question. The Lincoln storm dropped some huge hail so it was most likely a supercell (there's a general rule of thumb that only supercells are capable of producing hail > 2.0" in diameter due to the immense vertical pressure gradient forces generated and the need for that kind of updraft velocity to sustain such hail growth). However, the area was blanketed in middle to high clouds all day and it was pretty cool, so I'm guessing it was an elevated supercell.

 

[ahaberlie]

Question for you guys... A potential tornado/rotation would be to the right of this feature off the screen or further back to the left of this feature, yes? Just a hunch but it looks like it would be associated with an RFD and the rotation/tornado would be to the right of this, kinda tucked back, and possibly rain wrapped?

 

[Skip Talbot]

That's right. Although its possible for tornadoes to form down the length of the RFD gust front, and assuming we're looking west at an RFD gust front, the most likely location for a tornado would be on the extreme right side of photo, further back in the rain, or off frame to the right.

 

[April Schoen]

From this picture, and from when i recall i heard about the date of this tornado, it was isolated and consisted of an updraft, I'm pretty sure it is a supercell.

 

[Paul Knightley]

It is not always possible to tell from looking at a storm whether it is a supercell. Remember that a storm is not an object - rather, it is a process. Furthermore, supercell behaviour is a special type of thunderstorm process. Sure, quite a lot of the time, especially in the Plains, that behaviour manifests itself as something which we can identify visually. But it's the behaviour of the storm and not how it looks which determines whether it's a supercell or not.

 

[Justin McGinley]

Alright I c it now guys thank you very munch for your help!!!