What is this structure?

[Christian Neumann]

This is my very first successful lightning picture. I shot it when I started with stormchasing in October 2007 on the Island Mallorca (Mediterranean, Spain). I am still puzzled about the cloud structure in the center of the image which is lit by the lights of the town in the background. Is this a wallcloud or a funnel?

This one is more zoomed-out and was made some moments before:

 

[David Dildine]

Looks like a rain foot from the precip on the left side of the shot, blurred from the long exposure. There could be some sort of rotation in there but you'd need more information on the storm to make that call. That's just my two cents.

 

[David Dildine]

Nice catch by the way!

 

[Laura Duchesne]

To me that looks like the beginning of a wall cloud... or just the main updraft region of the storm. Were the winds blowing toward or away from where you were? If blowing towards, definately inflow going on here, which would indicate updrafts.... usually scud tags will form in an updraft region and rise up into the base. Did you pay attention to how the lowered cloud was behaving?

Great catch on the first one!

 

[Brian Stertz]

Has a shelf cloud look....if this was indeed a wall cloud...it would have to be more persistent of a cloud feature. First pic is very cool btw. Love the CG strike.

 

[Matt Gingery]

Nice pic! Looks like the beginning stages of a possible wall cloud in the blown up portion. The small section that is lowered and consolidating. Probably a high humidity set up, and this cell is nearly surface based in that first exposure. I would say the gates opened shortly after this shot, and the storm outflowed. Looks like a typical summer storm here in the U.S. with a strong updraft, and then the downburst, FFD ends up cooling the updraft. Looks like the beginning of a shelf cloud for sure, but that first pic is mysterious. Killer shots. . .BTW if this is a wall cloud it looks as if it could be anti-cyclonic, and that would be a rare shot within itself.

 

[joel ewing]

Beautiful shot! My guess is it's inflow-related.
Dude, keep shooting!

 

[Christian Neumann]

Thank you guys for your help and explanatory comments!
There was in fact a wallcloud (this is at least, what I think it was) some moments earlier:

A few minutes after I shot the cg bolt, the storm became downdraft dominated and all structeres were hidden behind the precip: