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does this look like a tornado forming?

I took this picture during a thunderstorm in Leeds a couple of months ago. just wondered if there was anyone there that could tell me if it looks like the start of a tornado. you cant tell from the pic but the lower bit of cloud appeared to be rotating.

Thoughts?

http://tinypic.com/r/2wf3kf4/5

3 Answers

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  • Water
    Lv 7
    10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    This type of feature is often mistakenly identified as a funnel or developing tornado.

    It appears to me that the lowering is due to the outflow from the rain immediately behind and to the left of the feature. It does appear to be a curl to the feature but is difficult to tell from a single picture but again, this curl can be caused by the out rush of air from the heavy rain that is very visible behind the feature.

    It is my opinion that this is a lowering that is being caused by the outflow from the heavy rain rapidly lifting the unstable air just ahead of the rain. Most likely it is the beginning of a shelf cloud. Would have liked to seen this 10 minutes later to see if this feature continued, dissipated or did develop into a shelf cloud.

    Source(s): an old forecaster and have chased storms for over 40 years. I have seen a lot, but admit I still haven't seen everything. That is why I still go chasing.
  • ?
    Lv 4
    10 years ago

    Yes it could have been but these actually happen a lot more common than many people think in the UK in fact we have more tornadoes than anywhere else in proportion to our size, so if you took a part of america the size of the UK then we would have more tornadoes than that specified place, it isn't defined as a tornado until the funnel cloud reaches ground

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    No. its only me

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