On 9/11/2015 storms rolled in from the north into Huntsville. I was able to capture the shelf cloud coming over Chapman Mountain! I also captured what the untrained eye may have thought was a tornado. Interestingly enough, WHNT’s meteorologist discussed clouds like this and asked if a new cloud type needed to be named. We’ll leave that decision to the professionals.
Does this cloud need a new type of name? We’ll leave that debate to the professionals, but several people confused this for a tornado, but it has zero rotation.
Shelf cloud beginning to pop up over Chapman Mountain.
Panorama of the shelf cloud coming over Chapman Mountain.
Shelf Cloud coming over Chapman Mountain and over US-72.
Inside the Whale’s Mouth. Looking south over US-72.
Timelapse of the storms.
Blair Scott: Synthentral 