Hi John,
I have had so many debates on other forums in regards to tornado density in Australia. This will always come up in any argument. But given what I have observed overseas and the storms that produce them, there are usually some characteristics that somehow show up with various tornadic events or let's say tornado warned events. One that I mention above wind inflow - localised observations were near calm in the area. Such conditions alone make me suspect. Any tornadoes and even aggressive wall clouds I have seen here and in the U.S. usually co-exist and are often formed by strong low level wind shear. Of course if the atmosphere locally was extremely unstable CAPEs of perhaps 6000 or more, then I would be looking fairly carefully.
To me taking one backward step away from all excitement (that finally we have seen a tornado and they are not so rare after all), the whole structure of the storm and developing low level clouds is consistent with outflow as David suggests in his post.
When you even see one tornado no matter what the dynamics, the rotation is unmistakable - so rapid you often know that something is going to happen. Forget about fast forwarding video for timelapse. This is real time. And I mean rotation in the cloud base not only the vortex! The ckloud base is circular and not linear (of course in the case of landspouts, you have misacyclones as compared to mesocyclones) but you still observe localised rotation.
Ok, so we await damage survey. We then have to distinguish between tornadic damage as compared to straight line winds. Let me know if you see adjacent telegraph poles leaning in opposite directions and I am all ears. Or perhaps trees doing something similar.
Certainly take photographs of whatever you observe and post it on here.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
