JoshuaK
Weather Guru
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Posts: 159
Loc: Lakeland, FL
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I was at work last Thursday evening when I observed a rapidly firing up thunderstorm in West Lakeland, caused I believe by the convergence of the East Coast and West Coast seabreezes. The storm quickly grew intense, and I was watching a strange cloud formation on the SW side of the storm when I spotted a rotating mass of cloud in a rain free zone. As I continued watching, I spotted a funnel cloud peeking it's nasty cone out of the bottom of the cloud, and promptly reported it to the local NWS office in Ruskin. I continued to watch the funnel cloud move east before it disappeared into the non-rain free portion of the storm.
Now, onto the question of what I observed next, and did not report. About three-four minutes after disapperance of said funnel, I watched in amazement as a rather large rotating mass of thunderstorm formed into an upside down bowl shaped, and out of the center of the bowl emerged a massive wall cloud, also rotating, that proceeded to suck up lots of ground clutter clouds into the storm.
Now, a few days after the fact, I find myself in doubt as to whether or not that was in fact a wall cloud, or just a massive funnel cloud that I observed. It looked like a wall cloud from videos I've seen on TV, but I don't remember seeing the inverted bowl shape around the wall cloud from those videos, so I thought I'd ask people here for their expert opinion or knowledge on the matter.
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danielw
Moderator
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Posts: 3525
Loc: Hattiesburg,MS (31.3N 89.3W)
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One of the METs can probably answer this one better. I believe you are correct with your observation of a funnel cloud. Which is actually a tornado that is not touching the ground.
I checked the NWS Ruskin Local Storm Reports for July 3rd and this is the only one I found.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
312 PM EDT THU JUL 03 2008
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0302 PM WATER SPOUT 5 SW SIESTA KEY 27.23N 82.62W
07/03/2008 GMZ853 FL TRAINED SPOTTER
RECEIVED NUMEROUS CALLS ABOUT A LARGE WATERSPOUT 5 MILES
SOUTHWEST OF SIESTA KEY.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/printable.php?pil=LSR&sid=TBW&date=2008-07-03%2019:13:45
I don't know how close Lakeland is to the above location. But some of the Florida Waterspouts that I've seen on television can be seen for many miles. Due to the topography of the land and height of the cloud bases.
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Ed Dunham
Former Meteorologist & CFHC Forum Moderator (Ed Passed Away on May 14, 2017)
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Posts: 2565
Loc: Melbourne, FL
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From your description it seems like you viewed the rotating base of a mesocyclone. Mesocyclones are thunderstorms, sometimes massive ones, where the entire thunderstorm (or most of it) achieves rotation. They are often precursors of funnel clouds/tornadoes that form within the mesocyclone itself and this rotating collar cloud can be very close to the ground. It projects downward, often dramatically, from the base of the thunderstorm.
Cheers,
ED
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JoshuaK
Weather Guru
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Posts: 159
Loc: Lakeland, FL
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Found a SPS I remember looking up on my cell phone several minutes after I made the call to look and see if any Severe Thunderstorm Warnings had been issued;
000
WWUS82 KTBW 032149
SPSTBW
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
548 PM EDT THU JUL 3 2008
FLZ052-032215-
POLK-
548 PM EDT THU JUL 3 2008
...FUNNEL CLOUDS ARE POSSIBLE IN WESTERN POLK COUNTY...
AT 548 PM EDT...A SKYWARN SPOTTER REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD IN NEAR
LAKELAND. DOPPLER RADAR SHOWED THE STORM STATIONARY.
FUNNEL CLOUDS MAY BE NEAR...
LAKELAND.
CRYSTAL LAKE.
FUNNEL CLOUDS CAN BECOME BRIEF...SMALL...BUT DANGEROUS TORNADOES.
MOVE INDOORS IMMEDIATELY...AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.
&&
LAT...LON 2814 8191 2799 8182 2797 8199 2807 8202
TIME...MOT...LOC 2148Z 243DEG 1KT 2805 8195
$$
63
As for the term mesocyclone, I am familiar with the term, but not what it stood for exactly. The whole experience was pretty awesome and scary at the same time.
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Lamar-Plant City
Storm Tracker
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Posts: 383
Loc: Plant City, Florida
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Quote:
The whole experience was pretty awesome and scary at the same time.
If you watch weather enough you will have these awesome and frightening experiences. I have had several, but never involving a funnel cloud. Did see a very large, very odd dust devil out between lakeland and plant city about a year ago. I remember the storm you are referring to as the western edge brushed Plant City that evening. You did the right thing keeping an active weather eye out and reporting what you saw. We live in a very active place with lots of unusual weather phenomena due to those sea breezes and the proximity of so much warm ocean water. Just stay away from the lightning!!
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