Tornado's or Gustnado's?

[Kyle Masters]

Couple of pics for discussion- Tornado or Gustnado?

[Broken External Image]:http://www.flysasa.com/052804/DSC00272.jpg
[Broken External Image]:http://www.flysasa.com/052804/DSC00275.jpg

The clouds above both dust fields are rotating violently. You can see them at top of each picture.

Whattya thing?

 

[Scott A. Kampas]

It has a distinct gustnadoish appearance and I don't see any cloud base signs of a mesocyclone, so I would say gustnado.

Scott

 

[Kyle Masters]

And I think there's no meso because i'm right under it I have a couple of videos of what i think would have been the underside of a wall cloud directly over me.

Oh, and about 20 seconds after those disapated and moved eastward this showed up:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.flysasa.com/052804/dsc00262.jpg

 

[Court Hubbard]

i'm glad someone posted about this, i actually saw a gustnado the other day when a storm went through except it filled in completely. so i guess you can consider it a landspout if it fills in but doesn't come from a wall cloud? didn't last very long and wasn't very big either. my vote on the pictures is gustnado as well.

 

[Ben Cotton]

It has a distinct gustnadoish appearance and I don't see any cloud base signs of a mesocyclone, so I would say gustnado.

Because it's fun, I'm going to go ahead and disagree with Scott. Honestly, I'm not quite sure, but if you use your imagination, in the top picture that could be a very small lowering in the base (more likely a scud, but who can say?) I'd have to know where you were in relation to the storm. Do you have any radar images from then you could post?


Ben

 

[Scott A. Kampas]

There is always the problem of limited view. Having a wide view and most importantly movement (a sense of time and change) would answer the question. From the given pics though, definitely appears like a gustnado. Don't start with the epistemology Ben ;-P.

Scott

 

[Richard Halter]

I would like to see more view of the base of the clouds, but anytime I see a lowering above a rotation on the ground, particularly if that lowering is also rotating, that lends me to support the idea of weak tornado rather than gustnado.

gustnados, in my mind, have no attatchment, no association with the clouds above them.

 

[Steven Williams]

Given that dust whirl is 'rotating violently' under what appears to be a meso (pic 3) I am gonna vote weak tornado. I think I prefer the tornado option, but we will never know.

 

[Kyle Masters]

I was directly under the lowerings, i'm right in between those two "thingy"'s. Here is a picture of just before the east edge of what i would assume to be the bottom of the wall cloud I was under (notice the funnel):

[Broken External Image]:http://www.flysasa.com/052804/DSC00242.jpg
Directly under that, straight up shot, while those "thingy's" were on the ground.
[Broken External Image]:http://www.flysasa.com/052804/DSC00258.jpg
Looking east after "thingy's" passed over.
[Broken External Image]:http://www.flysasa.com/052804/DSC00260.jpg
same shot again.

 

[Geoff Boyle]

I'd say Gustnado. In a dry summer like this one, those pop up every once and a while during a nice storm up in the northern tompson region of BC.

 

[Cstok]

Hey Kyle,
What storm was that?

 

[Kyle Masters]

Event occurred in SE South Dakota (Parker Area) on Friday, May 28, 2004.