Developing Tornadocane Over Northern Indiana?

There seems to be something very unusual developing over northern Indiana. It is approaching South Bend & Fort Wayne. I don't recall ever seeing a radar signature like this in all my years. Here is a thunderstorm with banding features like a tropical system. There is a very clear circulation to the storm.

www.climatepatrol.com...

What are your thoughts on this?

Wow!

That looks weird. People in that area should take cover now!

Wow, interesting.

A small storm with huge area of counterclockwise rotation.

I've never seen anything quite like that over land either Indy.

It's just an area of low pressure which rotates counter clockwise. I see them all the time on sat maps. Looks like some pretty bad weather over there.

[edit on 8/13/2005 by GoldEagle]

You see them all the time in large systems. But when have you seen a thuderstorm do that? There can be storms that rotate. They are called mesocyclones. But I haven't seen them with banding features like this.

That's the type of cell that will do a fair bit of damage, NOAA has reports of 3 tornados in Indiana today, fortunately minor ones, but that system still looks nasty.

Here's the current look: www.crh.noaa.gov...

According to the latest radar image the estimated maximum winds are 86 kts. Not sure if that is a surface reading or what.

Interesting, but how does it occur?

Honestly not really sure how a storm like this forms. They are so rare and since their formation is unpredictable there is no real way to study them. Here is a link on the 1999 North Carolina tornadocane.

www.spc.noaa.gov...

Says on the page that peak non tornadic winds were 165mph. That is the strength of wind gust you'd epxect to find in a category 4 hurricane. Winds that strong will cause extreme damage.

if that's the same storm that hit central MA today it was outrageously powerful

i haven't seen anything like it in all my time here...by the power of it i could've sworn it was a hurricane