Thursday, June 23, 2011

Wasn't That A Strange Setup?

QUICK UPDATE:
NWS is conducting their survey at this moment. Their assessment will be completed some time today.
Interestingly and I forgot to mention this, did anyone notice the weather observation from the NWS Louisville Int'l or Standiford Field at 8:00pm? I have never seen a weather observation like that.
Funnel Cloud and Breezy, SE winds at 21mph gusting to 26.

After a strange weather situation yesterday that apparently produced tornadoes in Louisville, the damage assessment from survey crews will commence today.

In my opinion, there were funnel clouds, especially with the first cell to affect the region. Around 7:20pm, I left for a prior non-weather engagement and noticed what I thought was just a simple and small rain cloud to my west across the river in Harrison county Indiana.

On the Gene Snyder between Stonestreet and Dixie Hwy, I was at an elevated position looking across the river and noticed a cloud shaped like a small wedge from the base of this rain cloud. It was far away and the hills obscured my view; therefore, could not be sure if it was rotating or even very close to the ground. I wasn't expecting any severe weather but turned on the radio just in case. No warnings, no apparent sightings of any funnels.

So, I just dismissed it as a low hanging scud but was not very convinced of that reasoning (since scud tend to hang well below the base of the cloud. However, I believe that it was this cell that would track across portions of Shively, and eventually toward Papa John's Stadium and Churchill Downs near UofL that produced multiple tornado touchdowns, some of those with strong EF-1 damage.

Of course, we'll see what the NWS says about that, but I've never seen a tornadic cell embedded within a simple rain cloud. Obviously, the cell was rapidly developing into a cumulonimbus (thunderstorm), but at the time of my sighting, the storm top on this thing could not have been more than 20,000 feet high. Many tornadic cells have cloud tops well above 35,000 feet and much higher.

More info later as the NWS crews complete their survey.
MS

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