I should have known when we were able to get every single channel out of Kansas City this morning that there was something going on with the atmosphere.
Then, when I walked out the get the mail at 10:00 in the morning and it felt like I was in the rain forest, I should have known something was up.
About 3:00, it became severely obvious.
Let me just at this point that I have no pictures to show for this. I really wanted to head outside and lay in the grass with my camera, but I know my mother would have had a fit. Blame it on her cautious upbringing of me.
The kids and the upstairs neighbor were in the basement. I had the television on and eyes out the window.
When I saw that the combination of clouds above the house were swirling in the same general direction it became clear to me that we were directly under the wall cloud. The radar was showing that nothing was to us yet, but I've heard that it's always a little behind.
This huge circle of swirling clouds was hardly moving. It was slowing creeping to the east, where we have too many trees to see well.
Three minutes later, the "hook" on the radar was directly over us.
At the point that I realized what was potentially over us, I decided to head to the basement. As I walked past the window air conditoner in our kitchen, I noticed the wind was blowing the opposite direction and was very hot. I think meteorologists call this the backdraft. Or maybe I just like to call it that.
Five minutes later, storm spotters spotted a funnel near the little town east of us.
And then I decided to head outside with the camera.
Now here comes the test. It's a two point quiz.
What kind of clouds are these, and when do they appear?
The winner gets to enjoy the next wall cloud from our basement with the kids and the neighbor! :D
Trudy, I too am a Kansas girl. Are these cumulonimbus mamma (aka mammatocumulus)? Do they happen right before a tornado?
Posted by: JoeyM (babyroo7) | June 19, 2009 at 04:23 PM