What's in these pictures?

[Michael Wilkinson]

Looking at descriptions, definitions, and examples of tornadoes, landspouts, tail clouds, scud, wall clouds, shelf clouds, etc.; I'm still having trouble identifying what's in these pictures. Is there a way to tell exactly what's going on in these pics?

 

[Paul Knightley]

Is that from OK on May 29th?

It looks like you have a low-hanging wall cloud and, in the first shot at least, a low-level tail cloud feeding into it.

 

[Jeff Duda]

It's always hard to tell without video and context. In what direction are you looking? When was this taken? What did radar reflectivity/velocity look like in the area? What was the motion at the tips of the clouds?

 

[Michael Wilkinson]

Thank you Jeff and Paul. Here’s additional info:

Yes, it was May 29 in Oklahoma (near either Buffalo or maybe Waynoka). We were South if the storm looking North. The first photo was taken at 5:17 pm, the second photo at 5:19 pm. I don’t remember the exact motion of the clouds well enough to give an accurate description. I’ve attached two screenshots of my RadarScope that shows Reflectivity and Storm Relative Velocity very near the times the photos were taken.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Thanks for providing context. It certainly appears in the second photo that there is a rather large, meaty wall cloud with a rain-filled RFD clearing out the clouds on the left side of the image and creating what appears to be a "horseshoe" shaped cloud base (with the apex on the right side, and likely pointing east). You would want to look on the backside of the horseshoe, back where it connects to the main precipitation shaft (FFD) for where a tornado is most likely. If you watched closely enough you may have been able to discern rotation back in there.

 

[Michael Wilkinson]

Thank you, Jeff. Your analysis is very helpful. I’m spending time going over what we did on our Chasecation to try to learn more.

 

[Paul Knightley]

I think you have a shot of this, which ties in with what I mentioned above. This was my shot of the storm, probably at a similar time.

 

[Michael Wilkinson]

Paul,

I think you’re right. I was standing near the Highway facing North and slightly West. You would have been on the North/South dirt road, East of the field, facing West. I might even have a picture of you taking that picture.

I love this forum. It makes it easier to learn when I’m able to communicate with someone more experienced that witnessed the exact same event.

 

[Paul Knightley]

You're right about the road! I've just realised the same areas of trees are in both our shots - I must be just about in your shot!

 

[ChristofferB]

I have another photo from another angle of that (impressive) storm: https://www.stormchasingusa.com/blog/day-3-may-29th-monster-supercell-in-oklahoma/ . The wall cloud on that storm was incredible but never really had enough rotation. The tail cloud seemed to sniff the ground at times, it was that low. There was a small (shear?) funnel near that wall cloud at one point but no tornado - and we had a great view of it.