Funnel Cloud in the Sierra

“We saw this on our 9 day trip. SnowDude captured it, and its is possibly the highest elevation tornado observed in the Sierra.

http://tornado.sfsu.edu/RockwellPassTornado/index.html”

“Whoa, COOL! That's incredible!”

“Cool, Hey Snow where have you been??????”

“Dang!”

“I'm home sick today (neck hurts, and my chiropractor disappeared) . :-( Just woke up.

Been backpacking, can't get sick on weekends, so I stayed home today.”

“cool pics....talk about being in the right place at the right time for a photo op!”

“awesome picture. saw one once while driving, pretty scary. MIne didn't look near as cool though.”

“Wow! I remember you telling us about it this weekend, that's incredible.”

“Check the Google Ads on the right
>>>>>>

LOL



I forwarded the link to one of those wackos at NASA/Goddard. I'm curious to see what feedback comes from that....”

“That IS awesome! I can't make head or tails of the graph but me like pictures.”

“Wow!”

“Been backpacking, can't get sick on weekends, so I stayed home today

----------------------------------

thats the best quote I've seen in ages on this board!!”

“Jeepers!”

“We didn't know it at the time, but the pass was Rockwell Pass, named after Bob Rockwell of CLMRG and one of the biggest names on the Whitney Portal board. We found it in Secor's book while looking for the location.

I finally met Bob last November, and have done a few hikes with him since. We saw him at the end of our 9 day trip at the Whitney Portal store and talked to him, but had no idea it was his pass we saw the funnel cloud on.”

“That's just crazy! What kind of temps and conditions preceded it? And how close was this to you? Wow!”

“freakin awesome!”

“Totally cool! Ditto on lizs question. What preceded the conditions? And how close were you to it?”

“Cool! Awesome pics!!

I didn't know the name of that pass. I went over it when I left the second llama trip early from Wrights Lake Basin. Made this video clip a few months ago for another post.

Neat page about the funnel cloud.”

“WOW
that is about all I have to say.”

“That's cool.

I've always enjoyed tornado watching. From a distance of course, you can't see jack from up-close = 8 0 .”

“Those pics are cool! Congrats to SnowDude!”

“Harrumph! No credit to BowlderMan for the TOPO! maps on John's tornado page showing where the pass is. :-)

BTW, check out the rest of his web site - he's one of these guys who chases tornados, and they got some great photos of them this past spring.”

“WOW! Thumbs up on the photo. Sweet image.

I have video footage I took while shooting a documentary of a tornado. Driving home, encountered major supercells blowing up. Rounded a bend and saw it form right in front of me. Stopped the car and started to shoot it.”

“Awesome shots!

Is it my imagination, or can you see hail falling?”

“Why is it that tornados don't normally form in mountains? I mean, I know in the Rockies you pretty much always have your afternoon storm most every day. Are they missing the very low and very high temps you get on the ground, that end up meeting?”

“Much credit to Bowlderman for forwarding these pictures to his friend John! Since then I've also been contacted by the National Weather Service so they can file a report on the incident. The temperatures were in the 70's leading up to it. It didn't really seem any different than the afternoon thunderstorms we'd been seeing all week, until we noticed the funnel.

Good thing Bowlderman wasn't successful in nailing me with that boulder last summer, or I'd have never had this opportunity. :)”

“I wondered about that too. I know the flat lands of the midwest have the temps, terrain and weather patterns in general to spawn them.

I think mountainous terrain usually presents an obstacle to them forming and probably your idea about the wrong mix of temps is right on.

I know someone to ask!”

“That's one hail of a good shot.”

“Dana, I think I know who you're gonna ask. Why not have him post his answer here? WHERE has that boy been???!? lol”

“I got one of those at the fair last week. I had them put extra powdered sugar on top too. Oh wait! Funnel CLOUD, not CAKE! Sorry, my mine automatically shifts into food mode sometimes.”

“Additional trivia: John the weather guy is great - he gave me personalized forecasts for our Tioga Pass trip in February, the one that dumped a huge amount of snow on the Snows in Mammoth, but just sprinkled a few flakes on us....”

“And the forecasts were right? If so, we all want this weather guy FOR OUR OWN!!!”

“I'm gonna have to go bodily harm him. LOL yeah right.

He could mash me like a grape.

I'll see.... I can only Axe and he can say yes or no.”

“Wacko NASA response:

"Cool! Did the whole mesoscale analysis, too...."



I wonder what the wackos in Norman, Oklahoma would say.... ?”

“Yeah, lizs, he forecast about 1-3" of snow over 3 days, and that's exactly what we got, even though they got about 3 feet only 30-40 miles away! He does forecasts for our running club's major races and is always within a degree or two and never misses on precipitation.”

“Freakin' Fantastic! TO see that in the mountains would blow my mind! Was it really windy?”

“It wasn't really windy where we were, but we may have been protected since we on the other side of the pass from the funnel. We were getting pelted pretty hard by hail.”

“I've always heard that hail is a Really good indicator that a funnel cloud could be nearby.... and the larger the hail; the better the chances, <G>”

“Being in the midwest and having seen enough hail over my time, I don't think that's true, Tilt. ;-P”

“Maybe you were in deeper #&%!$ than you knew at the time? <G>”

“yowzers!”

“I just got an email from John, the weather guy. He says that, indeed, it appears that this tornado will go down in history as the highest elevation tornado ever observed in the US. It may be the highest ever observed, period. Also, the event will be the subject of a presentation at a big storm research conference in 2006 - maybe the Snows will get to go!”

“Whoohooooo!”

“I forget.... What 'cleans like a white tornado'? <G>”

“I know, I know!

Me, when the kitchen is a mess, and I'm in a hurry?”

“wow, the Snows are like Famous now!”

“They were pretty famous before.

Great photos Scott, though Malinda would like to see a few from the eye the next time. :-)

Off to check out the other photos from the trip. Take care you two.”