Wall clouds spotted over Michiana this past weekend

NOW: Wall clouds spotted over Michiana this past weekend
NEXT:

It was an active weather weekend across Michiana, filled with heavy rain, severe thunderstorms, microbursts, and even tornado warnings.

The National Weather Service surveyed the damage from Saturday's storms, and determined that no tornadoes ever touched the ground. 

However, many across Michiana spotted the precursor to a tornado, known as a "wall cloud."

These clouds are formed when rain-cooled, humid air gets pulled into the rain-free area of a strong thunderstorm and condenses. Wall clouds are often the areas with the strongest updraft, but not all wall clouds are dangerous. However, if the wall cloud is rotating, that's when meteorologists really watch closely for quick tornado formation.

Michiana was fortunate that no tornadoes touched down, given how strong the rotation was in some of the thunderstorms Saturday. Warnings were issued (correctly) by the National Weather Service due to the areas of rotation present, even though there was no tornado observed. 

Share this article: