A view toward the west or northeast, often with revealing backlighting, typically offers the best view. This is the same Itaska, Texas storm, seen through a telephoto lens, looking west from about 15 miles!
![[Image: tornado and wall cloud in backlighting (38K)]](/guides/mtr/svr/type/spr/ftr/gifs/back1.gif){kind=link}
Photograph by: NWS
Such spectacular distant views are relatively rare, especially in the east and southeast U.S. where low clouds, haze, precipitation, trees, and hills make spotting from a distance more difficult.
Photograph by: NWS |
In this rare photograph we can see both the parent cumulonimbus cloud (Cb) and the tornado. |
![[Image: cumulonimbus cloud and tornado (40K)]](/guides/mtr/svr/type/spr/ftr/gifs/back2.gif){kind=link}
The indentation on the left side of the Cb in this photo seems to verify the presence of a rear flank downdraft (RFD), with a clear distinction between hard-textured updraft cloud and the ragged, dissipating cloud elements caught in the RFD. The tornado is at the intersecting point of the rotating updraft and RFD.
rotating updrafts |
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Supercells |