Sunday 3 June 2012

Eye of the storm: Incredible footage shows massive UFO-shaped supercell thundercloud

By Daily Mail Reporter
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It looks like an apocalyptic scene from a Hollywood blockbuster.
Although it looks like an otherworldly spacecraft, these incredible pictures actually show a thunderstorm cloud known as a supercell.
The impressive UFO-shaped cloud - literally the eye of the storm - ominously hovered near Adrian, Michigan, on May 21.

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Incredible: It may look like an alien mothership but this saucer-shaped cloud is actually a thundercloud called a supercell

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Ominous: Supercells are the most severe type of thunderstorm. This one, which hovered near the town of Adrian, in Michigan, on May 21 produced at least one tornado
According to experts, supercells are the most severe type of thunderstorm – this particular one produced at least one twister.
‘What you are seeing here is a well-developed rotating supercell thunderstorm, and the condensation pattern at cloud base forms a 'belt' or 'wall' appearance as air is lifted and sucked into the swirling storm,' Chris Walcek, a meteorologist at the State University of New York, Albany, told Discovery News.
Because they are relatively dry supercells also provide storm chasers and experts with great views of the power of mother nature - as footage captured of this storm testifies.
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Great views: Supercells are favoured by storm chasers because they are relatively dry so views are not obscured by sheets of rain

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Bleak: By May 22 the supercell had given birth to a twister

The lack of falling rain means tornadoes and other unusual cloud formations can be seen from a safe distance – rather than being hidden behind sheets of rain.
Windswept dust and rain dominate the storm's centre while rings of clouds surround the edge.
'I might speculate that the storm is ingesting large amounts of pollution or dust, which would suppress the warm rain process and result in the prevalence of hail,' Bill Cotton, professor of meteorology at Colorado State University, told Life’s Little Mysteries.
Storm chaser Randall Moles, who uploaded his footage of the storm onto YouTube, seemed to be unsure of what the saucer-shaped cloud was, describing it looking 'real suspicious.' 
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Mother Nature: The supercell provided any passerby with amazing evidence of the power of mother nature - here lightening is seen cracking behind the cloud
Massive storm systems like this centre on mesocyclones -- rotating updrafts that deliver torrential rain and high winds.
Known as the 'mother of tornadoes', a mesocyclone can be up to six miles wide and can produce as many as 60 tornadoes.
These severe thunderstorms form where cold dry air meets warm moist tropical air.
The wind coming into the storm starts to swirl and forms a funnel. The air in the funnel spins faster and faster and creates a very low pressure area which sucks more air  - and objects -  into it.
If the cyclone runs out of wet, warm surface air, it dies out. If it does not run out of this fuel, however, the rotating cloud stretches toward the ground and may become a giant tornado.

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