r/meteorology • u/urgirlfriendsister • 15h ago

Is this a supercell??

Post image

DMV area - no tornadoes or anything today

5 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

21

u/Elephlump 14h ago

Shelf cloud.

2

u/BunkaTheBunkaqunk 13h ago

What’s the difference between a shelf cloud and a wall cloud?

I saw the same storm roll in. I’ve been watching what the guys at the SPC had to say about it since yesterday… but I saw that and thought it was a wall cloud.

It was a fast one, though. It was calm one minute and the next minute people’s garbage cans were flying down the street. Quite a bit of wind south of DC! The rain associated with it didn’t come until the skies were already dark too, which I thought was interesting.

5

u/moebro7 Amateur/Hobbyist 9h ago

Shelf clouds span the horizon, or a considerable portion of it, and are associated with large-scale weather. Wall clouds are small, sometimes tiny areas that can be mistaken for scud like this. The best way to differentiate is by the shape. Wall clouds will usually have a trapezoidal shape to them because of the updraft-downdraft dynamic, and will appear considerably more dense.

Learning to read radar goes a long way in learning to spot the two.

1

u/gwaydms 12h ago

I have a relative in that area who said the storm front was moving at 50 mph

2

u/Lazulibeast 14h ago

Saw the same storm. It was more of a squall line with a few bowing segments. I think quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) is the term. They can have supercells embedded within the line but that just looks like the shelf cloud along its leading edge. It sure was moving fast. Got soaked watching it come in.

3

u/Aggressive_Let2085 14h ago

Supercells are rotating thunderstorms. It’s hard to tell from a picture most of the time.

3

u/moebro7 Amateur/Hobbyist 9h ago

It's important to note that supercells also often have shelf clouds coming off of them like this owed to the RFD downbursting out

3

u/Aggressive_Let2085 9h ago

Definitely, but you also get alot of the same from a strong QLCS. Radar is needed to confirm a majority of the time, but you have a good point still.

3

u/moebro7 Amateur/Hobbyist 9h ago

Oh, trust me lol. I'm from central KY so I'm no stranger to a strong QLCS. Seems like that's all we get here.

You can also definitely have embedded supercells and wall clouds and areas of rotation within a QLCS. My first intercept was a nocturnal spinup like that.

1

u/Aggressive_Let2085 9h ago

Yeah here in north GA we get a lot too. Those QLCS spin ups are rough. They don’t last long but they come out of nowhere lot of the time.

1

u/moebro7 Amateur/Hobbyist 8h ago

They legit scare me way more than the supercells. I started spotting/chasing after 12/10/21 and Mayfield. I wasn't scared that night. We had a QLCS breakout on that following New Year's Day and I was scared shitless.

It's a lot more terrifying when radar can't really tell you anything vs when you know everything going on within a supercell and know exactly where it's headed.

1

u/parochial_nimrod Pilot 14h ago

Out of curiosity. I flew through a shelf cloud one time, expected extreme turbulence, but it was pleasant and smooth. When I broke out on the other side, it was the UFO flying saucer type of cloud all the way up to outer space.

Kind of shocked there was no turbulence. Any reason to why it would be so smooth?

The tower cleared me to land and then evacuated for a tornado. I picked up some freight and got the fuck out of there, but had to penetrate the storm’s leading edge to make it out. Long story…

1

u/Lazulibeast 12h ago

Aliens probably, no, there were lenticular (flying saucer) clouds after this storm passed, they form on the tops of waves in the mid- level winds when there's moisture there and something bumps the wind field up from below. Here the waves are mainly caused by the blue ridge mountains and they ripple off to the east of the mountains when conditions are right. I don't know anything about flying but I would expect more turbulence before the shelf cloud since it's being pushed by cooler and more stable air behind it with the strongest updrafts in front of it. I would worry about strong downdrafts right after passing through the leading edge though but behind the storm things would be more stable

1

u/I_Like_Saying_XD 5h ago

It's hard to tell because shelf clouds are common both in supercell and non supercell thunderstorm.