What happened yesterday in Missouri?

[Travis Stone]

I was working and got into position to watch a tornado warned cell come through my county. While watching the cell it seemed to stop for a couple of minutes, then made a 60 degree turn from it slow Northeastdirection of travel to the right. As the storm was moving toward me I noticed non rotational clouds "zoom" up for lack of better term. these clouds came from the ground and went up to the shelf cloud that was moving toward me. It was like the storm was sucking fog from some of the valleys. The storm went on to produce a rotating wall cloud, with damage reported later. I have cell phone pics, and as soon as I can I will download them.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jesse Risley]

I was working and got into position to watch a tornado warned cell come through my county. While watching the cell it seemed to stop for a couple of minutes, then made a 60 degree turn from it slow Northeastdirection of travel to the right. As the storm was moving toward me I noticed non rotational clouds "zoom" up for lack of better term. these clouds came from the ground and went up to the shelf cloud that was moving toward me. It was like the storm was sucking fog from some of the valleys. The storm went on to produce a rotating wall cloud, with damage reported later. I have cell phone pics, and as soon as I can I will download them.

Thanks in advance.

It sounds to me like the supercell was riding the boundary and made a classic right turn, which isn't uncommon when a mesocyclone strengthens as the storm ingests better lower-level flow.

As far as scud getting ingested, I would assume you were seeing the supercell ingesting warmer air from the SSE in the form of inflow.

 

[Travis Stone]

This may be, and I was thrown off by the hills. I thought it might of had something to do with the sudden change of temp. its hard to explain and i will upload photos when i complete my move tomorrow.

 

[Tim Balassie]

Travis,

You mention a couple of things in your message I wanted to comment on. First you mentioned a "shelf cloud" moving towards you. Second you mentioned a change in temp.

From your description I assume that as the storm approached sfc winds shifted towards you, and dropped in temp. Thus you were in outflow/forward flank downdraft. As the gust front moves into more unstable air, parcels can certainly be lifted and condensed into the shelf.

Obviously the reverse is true if you were in the storm's inflow region, where parcels are condensed while being lifted into the storm's updraft. Perhaps then, the "shelf" you saw was a wall/collar cloud. Sfc winds might have shifted to your back, relative to the storm, and gotten warmer.

One of the first things I ask myself when I get out of my car to look at a storm is from what direction are the winds coming.

Tim Balassie (KC9JIB)
Kane Co, IL