Thanks to those that have contributed more to this topic today.
Hi Paul, thanks for that info. Can you post any imagery at all? Have you considered that process on earlier images such as 1184 onwards as per the discussion below?
Hi Macca, you are zero'ing in on the correct part of the storm in relation to my comments about the large distinct cone
but you have circled only part of the feature (which is also what I was initially drawn to in my photos) i'm referring to. The feature you circled is clearly obvious in my pics with no enhancement and we could see it visually at the time, however we could see more behaviour further behind and much lower to ground than that but I didnt realise there was any evidence in the pics until the weekend when I contrasted them. I thought it was pretty obvious in my contrasted images without annotating the pics directly but thats ok. I will put up some larger versions of the images in question friday arvo/evening to help clear up the confusion, and remember this direction (looking generally SSW from NW of Longwood) corresponds very well with the damage path/s location.
Hi David, in reference to the features in the pics I will re-post in larger versions (and our obs at the time) , you basically nailed the situation as I saw it with your description of what you would expect to see if there was a large rotating lowering associated with a low level meso which John is sure was present.
I think there is evidence of inflow coinciding with this part of the storm organising and producing a sustained lowering well below and further back from the obvious collar. Subsequently and with CS3 contrasting there are well defined edges to a possible large cone circulation which can be seen in a number of my images – the feature circled by Macca is only the top right hand edge of this larger feature which I could see with the naked eye and is the main reason for the number of photos I took of the storm at this moment.
I think your reference to collar is fitting as it was not gusting out like a shelf, in fact it built and consolidated as I think can be seen from pic 1115 onwards, with obvious flow into it from the western side as the storm moved slowly eastward. A distinct angled lowering forms pic 1118 onwards which we believe to be a wall cloud and then a large scud lowering became visible pic 1135 onwards and appears to move left to right around what we believed at the time was a concentrated area of conversion and rotation. Soon after, a large sustained cone shape became visible but was not 100% definitive as a tornado due to poor visibility.
As you described, your attention is drawn to that sort of behaviour (if you know what to look for or you’ve seen it before) and our attention certainly was. Add to that these pics and damage path/s as well.
I think there is also evidence of an RFD cutting through and separating this circulation from the northern flank. I now theorize that a new collar organises pic 1193 to the north of the occluding cone circulation and has its own inflow from the east (we experienced ground level inflow from the east. Perhaps this new area then leads to the rotation and disturbance that is the dust vortices, regardless of how they are classified. Meanwhile the larger circulation is somewhat left behind but may be visible in the lower background of a few later shots of the extended vortice tubes.
Interested to hear your views.
Brad.
