Tornado !

[zooropa]

Hey dudes ,

Just joined so you won't have heard of me b4 !

Please see attached photo of possible tornado , taken on Friday 24th July @ 18:16 from LAT 55 deg 34' 11.0" N : LON 2 deg 27, 20.5" W - looking East.

I'm finalising a report for TORRO , and am seeking further opinion on this.

Tornado or Scud Cloud ?

More photos of the storm cell can be viewed at http://www.zooimaging.com (ul find them easy enuf :-)

Any opinions gratefully received.

Cheers ,

Zooropa.AT 55deg 34' 11.0" N , LON 2deg 27' 20.5" W. LAT 55deg 34' 11.0" N , LON 2deg 27' 20.5" W.

[Optimus Prime]

Looks like a scud cloud.

[Paul Sherman]

Well if it was a Tornado which cant be assertained due to the Vantage Point being obscured then there would have been significant damage even if it occured over open Farmland, ripped trees, hedges etc. And looking at the picture it would probably be between T4 & T6 (EF2 TO EF3) So it is a "No" for me due to no damage being reported, or have you done a Site Investigation to see if any damage occured. If not then some pretty ominous looking Scud!

Paul S

*Nice Picture btw

[Harry]

Hey dudes ,

Just joined so you won't have heard of me b4 !

Please see attached photo of possible tornado , taken on Friday 24th July @ 18:16 from LAT 55 deg 34' 11.0" N : LON 2 deg 27, 20.5" W - looking East.

I'm finalising a report for TORRO , and am seeking further opinion on this.

Tornado or Scud Cloud ?

More photos of the storm cell can be viewed at http://www.zooimaging.com (ul find them easy enuf :-)

Any opinions gratefully received.

Cheers ,

Zooropa.AT 55deg 34' 11.0" N , LON 2deg 27' 20.5" W. LAT 55deg 34' 11.0" N , LON 2deg 27' 20.5" W.

Hi Zooropa

Good photograph!

I can't tell from that either way if it is a tornado or not - if you flick back through the Storms and Extreme Weather UK thread, you will see a quiz posted by Paul S called "Tornado or Dontnodo, which had some baffling outcomes.

Was it rotating? If so, then I'd say yess. If not, then I'm afraid not....looks convincing enough though and quite threatening.

Edited August 11, 2009 by Harry

[SnowJoke]

Having looked at your gallery, im pretty sure its ominous looking skud below the approaching storm gust front. A tornado as far as i know normally forms at the back edge of a thunderstorm, under the mesocyclonic updraft base not the leading storm edge. Anyway a tornado of that size would probably need a supercell to spawn it, which is extremely rare, let alone up in the scottish borders if thats indeed where it was taken. Also anything tornadic of that magnitude would cause huge ammounts of damage at ground level, so unless that forest in the background was flatened its very unlikely to have been a tornado.

[zooropa]

Snowjoke ! You're not suggesting I'm fibbing are you !!

I can assure you it was taken where I said - you'll see a few pitures of the same view on my web site - it's from the bottom of my garden.

I agree pretty much with your appraisal , I've just finished my report and have come to the conclusion that it's probably a funnel cloud that didn't touch down.

There's focal length compression distortion in the photo though , and I believe whatever it was passed some way behind the small wood on the horizon ...

But even in this sparcely populated area , anything of that apparent size on the ground would have left something someone would be talking about.

Nice 1 ,

Si.

[NL]

T'was a really impressive storm front, i captured a few shots of this too only i was 60 mile to your SE in South Shields,

as far as the alleged 'tornado' i have to agree that it was scud but could have been hiding a funnel as i certainly saw

rotation and my brother was walking along the seafront directly underneath the low 'scud' cloud and said the same.

Great shots of the storm from a different view point..

Here's a few from my perspective...

Looking west.

Looking Northeast.

sorry its a bit blurred but the gust off that front was quite strong..!!

Edited August 11, 2009 by NL

[zooropa]

NL ,

Nice shots , thanks for posting. What time were they taken out of interest ?

Interesting to see this was alive and kicking so far South , assuming it's the same system.

Si.

[tornadica]

hmmm im not so sure, only thing that would say yes is the cloud to the right seems to be drawn down towards it in some manner. i don,t wanna say yes or no really but looking at it logically id have to lean towards no...sorry bud!

[NL]

NL ,

Nice shots , thanks for posting. What time were they taken out of interest ?

Interesting to see this was alive and kicking so far South , assuming it's the same system.

Si.

The storm/gust front moved in around 8:15pm and produced a few Cg's but not as much as i'd have thought/hoped for..!!but the

structure more than made-up for the lack of thunder and lightning.

[Rustynailer]

That is without a doubt the best "isit a tornado?" shot I have ever seen. Extremely well done, in fact brilliant

Russ.

Its that good I am not going to vote, as a mark of respect from a fellow photographer.

Edited August 11, 2009 by Rustynailer

[zooropa]

Nice 1 Rusty - I'm humbled !

Zoo.

[sammie]

I voted no, can't believe that a tornado that size would go unreported in the UK by someone else. Plus there doesn't seem to be any debris either around the tornado something that size would tear the countryside apart. However I will admit it took me a good twenty minutes staring at the damn thing to make my mind up. That has to be the best nonado I've ever seen, hell that would have fooled me outside as well. If I saw that coming over the hill I'd be heading for my basement.

Edited August 11, 2009 by sammie

[Harry]

I voted no, can't believe that a tornado that size would go unreported in the UK by someone else. Plus there doesn't seem to be any debris either around the tornado something that size would tear the countryside apart. However I will admit it took me a good twenty minutes staring at the damn thing to make my mind up. That has to be the best nonado I've ever seen, hell that would have fooled me outside as well. If I saw that coming over the hill I'd be heading for my basement.

It has been well documented that a larger tornado does not mean a stronger tornado - while there is a correlation between tornado size and general windspeed, some of the narrowest can pack the strongest winds (Pampa Texas EF4 - for the most part was a relatively narrow funnel, but the rotation was insane!!) while some wider funnels can be little stronger than an EF0/1.

I agree, looking at that pic you'd expect at least leaves/branches to be in the air - however, that is if it touched down.

I think we'll have to live with the fact that we won't know - at best it was a funnel, otherwise an awesome scud!!

Those further pics of the storm are superb!! At first glance you'd have thought they were a weak US supercell

[zooropa]

Thanks for all the posts people , It's been enlightening !

I've finished my TORRO report , and have concluded 'funnel' cloud , if not a 'wow' bit of scud. Although I'll leave the final verdict to one more knowlegeable than I !

If anyone would like to see the report I'll gladly send it. Drop me a line at simon@zooimaging.com.

It's in .pps format so you'll need a version of Powerpoint.

Nice 1 all ,

Si.

P.S. I hope you don't mind , I've included some of your comments as a miscellany at the end of said report - no names mentioned !

P.P.S Just scored #12 in the tornado / dontnodo quiz ... joint 3rd I believe !! Better lucky than good as they say.

Great idea Paul.

Edited August 12, 2009 by zooropa