Funnel, Scud, Or Tail Cloud, You Decide Options

[Hunter Outten]

A friend of mine CJ Wood brought this up to my attention 2 weeks ago about seeing a Funnel Cloud southeast of Centreville, MD on the 30th of July. he happen to catch some photos with a cell phone. The setup was that a single cell form over the Chesapeake Bay and moved SE over his area while driving. His photo's showed a funnel like figure coming down out of the cloud and then dissipate. his exact words following. " i saw the funnel cloud coming down and kept growing torward the ground and then dissipate going into a rope stage". he did call me at the time of this to check on the radar. was a fairly small storm but at 1 point it had suitable rotation that came up and then died pretty quick next frame. At this point i narrowed it down to 3 possibilities. In fact it was a funnel, a very convincing scud cloud, or a tail cloud. you decide!

Heres the photos he shot with a cell phone camera.


this one shows alot went on with the formation of this cloud




heres a saved radar loop of the storm. wasnt able to get a storm relative velocity loop sorry

[Removed_Member_wfreeck_*]

Yep, that definitely looks like a scud cloud to me.

Just out of curiousity, which storm cell on the radar are we looking at?

This post has been edited by wfreeck: Aug 8 2008, 05:36 PM

[DomNH]

I agree that it is probably just some scud. The radar doesn't look to be showing any signs of rotation with the cell.

[Chicago Storm]

It is not a tail cloud, as they are horizonal, and this is verticle. It can possibly be a weak funnel cloud. As you look at the radar image, for a few frames the storm does form a hook as the outflow began to push out from the storm.

This is just like a storm interacting with a lake breeze, instead this time it was its own outflow.

Another possible thing this could be is the beginings of a landspout. It looks like on the second picture the "funnel" is on the back edge of the storm, and the sun can be seen. So this could quite possibly be a funnel that would then have formed into a landspout, if it had enough "power", which it did not. Landspouts are formed in a growing cloud, and is cause by the boundary layer vorticity, in this case it could have been strengthened a bit by the outflow.

I have seen something just like this, and if I find the picture I will post it.

This post has been edited by Chicago Storm: Aug 8 2008, 05:43 PM

[Hunter Outten]

Yep, that definitely looks like a scud cloud to me.

Just out of curiousity, which storm cell on the radar are we looking at?

the one that goes through centreville

[Removed_Member_wfreeck_*]

the one that goes through centreville

Yep, definitely a scud cloud.

[Chicago Storm]

It is not a tail cloud, as they are horizonal, and this is verticle. It can possibly be a weak funnel cloud. As you look at the radar image, for a few frames the storm does form a hook as the outflow began to push out from the storm.

This is just like a storm interacting with a lake breeze, instead this time it was its own outflow.

Another possible thing this could be is the beginings of a landspout. It looks like on the second picture the "funnel" is on the back edge of the storm, and the sun can be seen. So this could quite possibly be a funnel that would then have formed into a landspout, if it had enough "power", which it did not. Landspouts are formed in a growing cloud, and is cause by the boundary layer vorticity, in this case it could have been strengthened a bit by the outflow.

I have seen something just like this, and if I find the picture I will post it.

I can't find the picture. Here is a diagram though.......this is likely a funnel, that would have turned into a landspout.

As you can see on picture #2 the "funnel" was on the back edge cloud, which can be compared and seen on this image, from a simiar event that happend around here early this year.

This post has been edited by Chicago Storm: Aug 8 2008, 05:58 PM

Attached image(s)

 

[Hunter Outten]

I can't find the picture. Here is a diagram though.......this is likely a funnel, that would have turned into a landspout.

As you can see on picture #2 the "funnel" was on the back edge cloud, which can be compared and seen on this image, from a simial event that happend around here early this year.

thats the one other thing i forgot was a landspout

[Chicago Storm]

thats the one other thing i forgot was a landspout

Now this wouldn't be a total landspout, just the funnel, or the beginings.

[Removed_Member_wfreeck_*]

thats the one other thing i forgot was a landspout

Was there any wind with this? Scuds can sometime form into weak funnels (1st & 3rd picture shows a scud & the 2nd picture shows a very wak funnel).

This post has been edited by wfreeck: Aug 8 2008, 06:02 PM

[Hunter Outten]

Was there any wind with this? Scuds can form into weak funnels (1st & 3rd picture shows a scud & the 2nd picture shows a very wak funnel).

It looks a little disorganized.

i just got done talking with him i told him to look at land spouts and he said it looked exactly like that