Wishful Thinking On A Cold January Day

[Steve Frederick]

On the way home from taking my mother to a doctors appointment, the conditions were just right to make the steam rising from a local power plant look like a monster tornado. I rushed home to grab my camcorder & got myself positioned with just enough light left to document it.

 

[gdlewen]

There must be a thread somewhere on ST titled "Things That Sure Look Like Tornadoes But Cannot Possibly Be Tornadoes". I have a lightning picture from my time as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona that has a beautiful funnel-shaped rain shaft in it.

Sure looks like a tornado, but cannot possibly be a tornado....

 

[Steve Frederick]

There must be a thread somewhere on ST titled "Things That Sure Look Like Tornadoes But Cannot Possibly Be Tornadoes". I have a lightning picture from my time as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona that has a beautiful funnel-shaped rain shaft in it.

Sure looks like a tornado, but cannot possibly be a tornado....

Have you ever posted it here ?
If not, I'd love to see it.

 

[Laney Cole]

On the way home from taking my mother to a doctors appointment, the conditions were just right to make the steam rising from a local power plant look like a monster tornado. I rushed home to grab my camcorder & got myself positioned with just enough light left to document it.

Those are really cool shots, Steve. I saw photos of tornado like clouds coming off a plant near me a few months back. I'll share the photos when I can locate them.

 

[gdlewen]

Have you ever posted it here ?
If not, I'd love to see it.

Hi Steve: I found a scanned negative but it's not as "beautiful" as I remembered. Plus, the "thumbnail" option on attached images yields a full size image that cannot be resized, and this picture really does not want to be seen full-screen (Kind of a "Holy Brobdingnagians, Batman!" moment, for you Gulliver fans.)

Nevertheless, here it is:



Taken from the penthouse of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona, looking north (northeast?) Camera/Film: Pentax K1000 with f/2.0 50mm lens (kit) using Kodak 400 ASA Color Film. (I know, I know: bad choice of film but it's all I had with me at the time.)

 

[Laney Cole]

Screenshots from the original post on Discord. Originally posted on 10/21/2023 and 10/18/2023.
Sources: NJ.com and News12/Bronx: Interesting cloud formation spotted in sky over the tri-state. Here's what caused it

 

[John Robinson]

There is a coal-fired power plant in Newark (pronounced NEW arc), Arkansas, (not too far from Newport) that produces a plume of steam that rises into the cloud base on days with a strong inversion. Over the years, this plume has been reported as a tornado many times.

 

[Laney Cole]

There is a coal-fired power plant in Newark (pronounced NEW arc), Arkansas, (not too far from Newport) that produces a plume of steam that rises into the cloud base on days with a strong inversion. Over the years, this plume has been reported as a tornado many times.

I'll have to look and see if this plume has ever been reported as a tornado. No offense to NYC/North Jersey- I don't believe they are as savvy on tornadoes as Arkansas residents are. It's usually referred to as"that weird cloud." Thanks, John, you've given me something to think on.

 

[Jeff Wright]

Not far from me in Tarrant, Alabama…we have the ABC COKE plant (not Coka Cola, there there is a bottling facility nearby).

I was driving home in the 1990’s when my pay were still alive… and actually saw a vortex…not a tornado, but a diaphanous segment of a steam devil.

It was about a foot across at its widest…the segment only a few meters long with no condensation reaching the surface or higher than 30 feet or so—but no doubt connected to the exhaust plume well above.

It was very cold that day.

A few years earlier at a nearby job site—in the summer this time…I saw a repeating series of dust devils rising from one end of a quarry, and traveling slowly to the other.

The quarry accidentally had a good shape to spawn them..doubtless ruined by further excavations.

 

[Brandon Jones]

Years ago I saw a smoke plume that looked like a tornado. I was going to the Minnesota State Fair and I saw a rotating smoke plume next to a building at the bus stop that looked like a tornado. That was the closest thing to a tornado I've seen. Sadly I didn't take a picture of it.

 

[Brandon Jones]

Not far from me in Tarrant, Alabama…we have the ABC COKE plant (not Coka Cola, there there is a bottling facility nearby).

I was driving home in the 1990’s when my pay were still alive… and actually saw a vortex…not a tornado, but a diaphanous segment of a steam devil.

It was about a foot across at its widest…the segment only a few meters long with no condensation reaching the surface or higher than 30 feet or so—but no doubt connected to the exhaust plume well above.

It was very cold that day.

A few years earlier at a nearby job site—in the summer this time…I saw a repeating series of dust devils rising from one end of a quarry, and traveling slowly to the other.

The quarry accidentally had a good shape to spawn them..doubtless ruined by further excavations.

On Labor Day 2023, I was down at the park by my house and it was windy and there was a dirt road and I saw a dust devil move through the dirt road. Sadly I didn't take a picture of it.

 

[Laney Cole]

On Labor Day 2023, I was down at the park by my house and it was windy and there was a dirt road and I saw a dust devil move through the dirt road. Sadly I didn't take a picture of it.

I know the feeling, Brandon. I have many weather events that I wish I had video of, or at least a few photos. Good news is, weather is all around us, so we'll get the chance again.

 

[Brian McWatters]

On the way home from taking my mother to a doctors appointment, the conditions were just right to make the steam rising from a local power plant look like a monster tornado. I rushed home to grab my camcorder & got myself positioned with just enough light left to document it.

I was driving toward Temple TX in January 2023. I came over a hill and saw this:

As I got closer to the cloud formation, I could see it was just steam from an industrial plant: