Towering Cumulus?

[Sam Kennedy]

I took these photos early in the morning, of what I assumed to be towering cumulus, are they?

(that one shows that is it clear under the cloud)

So are these towering cumulus? They look like sort of mini supercells to me with overshooting tops, remember this was in November, in the North East of England.

 

[rdale]

Towering cu and mini supercells are not the same thing... The pictures seem out of focus at least on my display, with a lot of raindrops on the windows, so it's hard to tell.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Looks like boring strato-cumulus to me...might produce a few sprinkles but that's about it. Typically you won't see towering cu until afternoon when strong surface heating has occurred.

 

[Zach Chappell]

I have seen clouds like this before I don't think there TCU but I do think it could be stratocu same as scott thinks not 100% sure though.

 

[Angie Norris]

Going to agree with Scott as well.
I'm trying to think of how to describe what TCu looks like, but I'm a bit brain dead at the moment. I know somebody around here has a cloud pic or two to show you what it looks like .
Think of a big (6-7km high) cloud, puffy, but not like regular Cu. This cloud looks like it's carved out of marble...it looks solid. You normally don't see TCu early in the day. They're more of an afternoon/evening cloud on a nice, warm, unstable spring day.

 

[mikegeukes]

Lots of Cloud Photos on the NOAA Photo Library
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/brs/nwind3.htm
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/brs/nwind4.htm

You can also Google to find more photos of towering cumulus, cumulus congestus.

 

[Erik Burns]

Naw,, Thats not towering CU this is what towering CU looks like.

 

[Chris Lott]

Here is a picture I shot on May 7th of this year from a storm in Falls Co. in Texas. This storm formed along the dryline that had pushed through that afternoon and later produced a confirmed tornado near Bremond,TX, but poor road options cut me off from getting to the storm. I was on the north side of this storm went it exploded and I got a pretty good shot.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Ah good ol Tcu...a site i probably wont see for 3 more months.

Since I wasnt there I would guess your photos were of the dissipating state of a shower/thunderstorm. More likely leftover towers. Towering Cu would appear just like the photos above...and ill throw in one of mine i took out my bedroom window this year.

I actually called these "fail-cu" because they would tower up, bounce off the cap and then die. They ended up producing some local downpours thats it.

 

[mikedeason]

Here is a picture I shot on May 7th of this year from a storm in Falls Co. in Texas. This storm formed along the dryline that had pushed through that afternoon and later produced a confirmed tornado near Bremond,TX, but poor road options cut me off from getting to the storm. I was on the north side of this storm went it exploded and I got a pretty good shot.

I'd be inclined to encode this as an L3.

 

[Chris Kennedy]

I shot a video of similar clouds, they are scene around 36 sec. They produced nothing but heavy showers.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-LFWTWc0dQ

 

[Steven Williams]

I would be inclined to labels Sams pic as cumulus. The others are cumulonimbus. If there is any sign of glaciation then the congestus is cumulonimbus. The highest towers on the pic by Chris shows glaciation. Outstanding pics.