Tornado without cloud
POSTED BY: piratenews
UPDATED: Monday, July 20, 2009 19:47
VIEWED: 3908
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Ooh. That's an impressive dust devil.
Kind of weird seeing one all in the sunshine, when there's a thunderstorm with a shelf cloud off in the distance. And if it's got a shelf cloud, it's probably well developed enough to form a wall cloud and tornados.
But dust devils are formed over hot sun-warmed ground, so even though there's that strange juxtaposition, if the thunderstorm wasn't there it wouldn't be strange at all.
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I dont think its a mere dust devil, which are formed by ordinary thermals under cumulus clouds,
as a burst of sunlight warms the ground on a cloudy day. When air to too dry or stable to form cumulus, dust devils are short, slow, vertical and v-shaped.
Note how the vortex bends 90-degree horizontal before becoming invisible.
It's final destination is probably that colliflower cumulus in the background, soon to top out as a nimbus.
Sort of an s-shaped tornado, as all tornados begin. Normally this stage is invisible, without enough pressure drop to cause condensation.
This one is only visible due to dust in a plowed field, without condensation, though dust may mask the condensation of a "true" tornado.
Clear air indicates downdraft, cumulous indicates updraft.
The clear downdraft is pushing the tornado down horizontal.
As the tornado loops downward, air pressure increases, eliminating condensation, making it invisible.
Apparently all tornados start as horizontal shear between 2 layers of temperature inversion traveling in different directions.
The tornado then moves vertical when the rotation increases and cumulonimbus forms, due to greater suction as the cloud rises through
"unstable" air (hot air inversion above cool air). 
Video: www.britannica.com/thunderstorms_tornadoes/ocliwea124v4.html
Air cools as it rises (expands). When it reaches an altitude where it condenses into liquid drops, the cumulus cloud becomes visible.
At this point of condensation, the air temp drops suddenly, due to "latent heat of vaporization" being put into what is effectively "boiling" the water into steam.
So the updraft increases in speed inside the cloud, due to being "lighter than air", like a hot-air balloon.
Glider pilots can fly 100s of miles using these thermals below cumulus clouds.
But their wings get ripped off inside clouds, as the updrafts increase speed.
If the updraft reaches high enough speed, a tornado forms, visible or invisible.
Invisible tornadoes have probably killed a lot of pilots and passengers in so-called "clear air microbursts".
This photo should be a warning to pilots when "scud-running" -- jumping from hole to hole in the clouds --
when they might be flying into an invisible tornado...
Commie Russian jet entering killer formation of Tornados
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I'm sure you'll find a way to blame it on the Jews...
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Actually I've seen dust devils that reached a thousand feet up, and they can form in long vertical columns. The sun and difficulty discerning a parent cloud makes me think it's one of those more impressive dust devils.
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Playing tennis one day, I was distracted by the sight of trash bags and litter swirling about 150 up in the air. (I thought they were seagulls riding a thermal at first.) Then I realized I was looking at a "trash devil", which meandered its way over our court, across the next court and through a grove of trees. It was friggin WINDY!!!! We went instantaneously from about 10 mph conditions to about 40 mph conditions, and after about 15 seconds back to 10 mph. The kids in the court next door had a blast (literally and figuratively), the trees showed the underside of their leaves... and then it was gone.
I've seen dust devils, but not in the heart of LA, and I've never been IN one. It was fun!
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It looks like a water spout that I see often over the bay. Freaky!@
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Quote:
Originally posted by Riverlove:
It looks like a water spout that I see often over the bay. Freaky!
Could be a "landspout" :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landspout
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cruithne3753:Quote:
Originally posted by Riverlove:
It looks like a water spout that I see often over the bay. Freaky!
Could be a "landspout" :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landspout
Or a dust devil.
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Obviously a Jewmulo Nimbus.
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