Cloud over southeastern Wisconsin

Cloud over southeastern Wisconsin

Forums Cloud Identification Help Cloud over southeastern Wisconsin

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    • #517385
      Claire Parrott avatarClaire Parrott
      Participant

      Spotted in early August, associated with a supercell between Johnson Creek and Watertown. Any ideas? Many thanks…

      august-cloud

    • #517501
      Hans Stocker avatarHans Stocker
      Participant

      That one has an amazing shape Claire. I don’t have any clue but I found these pictures of the same event by some googling. The hat-like feature underneath the storm system seems to be at the place where a tornado might originate. Was there any (which I hope not)?supercellsupercell2

    • #517588
      Claire Parrott avatarClaire Parrott
      Participant

      Ahh, great finds, Hans–very cool to see this from other angles! No tornado, but there was a destructive wind later associated with this storm, which was headed to the NE. My dad spotted the cloud at Johnson Creek, and the destruction, associated with the straight-line wind, happened somewhere south of Watertown, within 15 miles of Johnson Creek.

    • #518642
      Gregory Venarsky avatarGregory Venarsky
      Participant

      Since it is coming from a supercell, I would guess that was a wall cloud that you spotted. Did you notice it rotating in any way shape or form? If so, that is most definitely a wall cloud. Excellent capture.

      –Greg

    • #518984
      Howard Brown avatarHoward Brown
      Participant

      https://www.photolib.noaa.gov/Collections/National-Severe-Storms-Laboratory/Hail/emodule/462/eitem/340

      I second Greg. Stunning picture.

      The book Extraordinary Weather by Richard Hamblyn (a CAS Member) 2012 in association with the UK Meteorological Office (it acknowledges Gavin Pretor-Pinney on page 143) has a picture of a Wall Cloud on page 21 from NOAA as above (but not the picture in the link). The text says
      ” A regular feature of supercell storm systems, wall clouds (sometimes known as ‘pedestal clouds’) are isolated lowerings (sic) attached to the bases of storm clouds. They develop when rain-cooled air is pulled towards the mesocyclone (the supercell’s violently rotating core), its moisture condensing at a lower level than the principal cloud itself…..”

    • #519625
      Claire Parrott avatarClaire Parrott
      Participant

      Thank you all so much! This is really interesting, and requires me to re-examine my own definition of a “wall” cloud. Appreciate your help and enthusiasm…my dad, who spotted the cloud, e-mailed back and forth with our local weather service station, but they weren’t as excited as we were. It’s wonderful to get such engaged responses, and to learn a little more about this formation.

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