Sunday, July 11, 2010

Impressive Tornadic Supercell East of Little Rock

The above image was taken from the Little Rock, AR (KLZK) doppler radar about 10 minutes ago.  This is a "reflectivity" image, which means it's displaying energy reflected back to the radar by rain, hail, etc.  Seasoned readers will immediately notice the impressive "hook echo" signature on this storm which was located about 20 miles East of Little Rock at the time.  Such a signature is a "classic" indicator of rotation and tornado potential in a severe thunerstorm.  This is more of a spring type signature that you'd expect to see on a storm in April or early May, not July!

The image below was taken by the same radar shortly before the above image, only this time in "storm relative velocity" mode, which shows the wind motion within the storm relative to the radar's position & the storm's movement.  The green colors show wind blowing toward the radar, while the red colors show wind blowing away from the radar.  The radar is located near the upper left corner of the screen (at the blue "KLZK" lettering).

Can you pick out the strong rotation Southeast of Lonoke?  If not, take a peak at the next image, where I've noted it for you:
This dangerous storm is moving East/Southeast at 25 mph.

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