What Exactly Did I See?

[George Widener]

I did a short local chase on the 22nd of a tor-warned supercell here in east-central Wisconsin. Once I determined that the cell was going to miss my house I proceeded to intercept and positioned myself on the south side of the cell hoping for a good view as it passed. Terrain and road construction hemmed me in to the north (Lake Butte de Morts) so this was pretty much a one-shot deal. Anyways, got some interesting shots and was looking for opinions on just exactly what I saw.
In the first photo the cell is moving towards me from left to right and is a mile or two distant. I did not see any visible rotation at this time, although the scud was very active vertically.
The second shot shows the view after I repositioned just east of the town of Omro, probably 3-4 miles from where the first view was taken. At the same time reports were coming in on ham radio of a wall cloud and lowerings approx 1-2 miles north of my location. There was also some large hail to the north of those reports.
The last view shows the storm approximately 2 miles further east as it was pulling away from me. Above the tree at left you can make out (what looks to me) like a funnel curving around.
So, while this obviously belongs in the SLC club, with lots of scud action...it doesn't look (to me) like a shelf, but has some similarities to a wall cloud. Just curious what the more experienced eyes here on ST think of this cell and what is going on with it. Ultimately there were no confirmed tornadoes with this cell...any comments appreciated.

 

[jeremy wilson]

Looks like a wall cloud in the first shot and a meso thats wrapped up pretty good in the second two.

 

[Jeff Duda]

A wider perspective on the feature in question would help, but it does have the look of a wall cloud, especially in the last image. Looks like it could have a wet RFD associated with it, but that's speculation. Also, I don't see anything resembling a funnel in that image. With a wet RFD the funnel would probably be obscured by rain from your vantage point. If it wasn't, I would be looking towards the center or right side of the rain shaft, not the left side. Again, that's speculation and just my opinion.

 

[George Widener]

Thanks for the opinions on the photos guys...I went back through my shots and found one more taken shortly after the last one posted above. It didn't look like much at first but I tweaked the contrast to see inside the murk and found a couple of interesting things. The funnel I suspected at left is still there, not sure about that one at all. In the center you can see a different feature...perhaps this is a shaft of heavy rain or hail?
EDIT: I should also mention that this cell was over water at the time of the last two photos, and I had heard a waterspout was sighted but never confirmed afaik.

 

[Jason Persoff]

I'd argue it's still too hard to tell. While the first photo looks like a wall cloud due to pronounced edge on the left side of the cloud feature, note that an accessory cloud is seen on the far right suggesting this still could be lifted scud cloud, despite the crisp appearance. Only persistence (> 30 seconds or so) and visible rotation would lend credence to this being a wall cloud. Look alikes are very common in HP storms, and the latter two photos suggest that is the case.

In the 2nd photo there is evidence of an RFD cut, suggesting that the left-most feature could be an early (though very narrow) wall cloud with an occluding cell to the right of the photo. Then there's the issue that sfc winds obs closer to the feature would have been helpful to know shelf vs. inflow. Last, sharp proximity to precipitation, depending on radar at the time and depending on sfc obs, would lead me to think this is much more likely to be an intersection of outflow meeting inflow (rain cooled condensate from the right side of the photo moving up and into the left side of the photo). The funnel in question in the high contrast shot could have been a funnel, but video, time, and evidence of those other features would help.

Cloud identification remains one of the more difficulty things after 20 years of chasing, particularly with stills. Don't feel bad that you're uncertain about the features you're seeing. During RFD occlusions, in particular, it can be very hard to figure out cloud features from a distance of even a mile or more because you're seeing high contrast, often backlit features that can flatten the 3-dimensionality of the storm feature.

Verdict: dunno.