I was asked a good question on our fb page tonight and now i will go thru different sizes and shapes of tornadoes and lingo

The Wedge Tornado

Typical "wedge tornado" is straight on the sides not funnel shaped and has a wide damage path. It's usually as wide, or wider than it is tall. These monsters are not necessarily stronger than funnels or other shaped tornadoes, but they do cover much more ground.

STOVE PIPE

USUALLY A STRONGER TORNADO

ROPE

Usually Dying out or a quick forming weaker tornado EF0 EF1

CONE

Elephent Trunk

Radar features of a supercell

Radar reflectivity map

• Hook echo or Pendant

The "hook echo" is the area of confluence between the main updraft and the rear flank downdraft (RFD). This indicates the position of the mesocyclone, and likely a tornado.

• Bounded weak echo region (or BWER)

This is a region of low radar reflectivity bounded above by an area of higher radar reflectivity with an untilted updraft. This is evidence of a strong updraft.

• Inflow notch

A "notch" of weak reflectivity on the inflow side of the cell. This is not a V-Notch.

• V Notch

A "V" shaped notch on the leading edge of the cell, opening away from the main downdraft. This is an indication of divergent flow around a powerful updraft.

• Hail spike

This three body scatter spike is a region of weak echoes found radially behind the main reflectivity core at higher elevations when large hail is present.^[7]

Supercell variations

Supercell thunderstorms are sometimes classified by meteorologists and storm spotters into three categories. However, not all supercells fit neatly into any one category, being hybrid storms, and many supercells may fall into different categories during different periods of their lifetimes. The standard definition given above is referred to as the Classicsupercell. All types of supercells typically produce severe weather.

[edit]Low Precipitation (LP)

Idealized view of an LP supercell

LP supercells contain a small precipitation (rain/hail) core separate from the updraft. This type of supercell may be easily identifiable with "sculpted" cloud striations in the updraft base or even a "corkscrewed" or "barber pole" appearance on the updraft, and sometimes an almost "anorexic" look compared to classic supercells. This is because they often form along dry lines, thus leaving them with little available moisture despite high upper level wind shear. They usually dissipate rapidly rather than turning into classic or HP supercells, although it is still not unusual for them to do the latter, especially if they happen to collide with a much moister air mass along the way. Although these storms usually produce weak tornadoes, they have been known to produce strong ones. These storms usually produce hail less than 1.00 inch (25.4 mm) in diameter^[8] but can produce large hail even with little or no visible precipitation core, making them hazardous to storm chasers and people and animals caught outside. Due to the lack of a heavy precipitation core, LP supercells can sometimes show weak radar reflectivity without clear evidence of a hook echo, when in fact they are producing a tornado at the time. This is where observations by storm spotter and storm chasers may be of vital importance. Funnel clouds, or more rarely, weak tornadoes will sometimes form midway between the base and the top of the storm, descending from the main Cb (cumulonimbus) cloud. Lightning is rare compared to other supercell types, but it is not unknown and is more likely to occur as intracloud lightning rather than cloud-to-ground lightning. In North America, these storms almost exclusively form in the semi-arid Great Plains during the spring and summer months. Moving east and southeast, they often collide with moist air masses from the Gulf of Mexico, leading to the formation of HP supercells in areas just to the west of Interstate 35 before dissipating further east. LP supercells can occur as far north as Montana, North Dakota and even in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. They have also been observed by storm chasers in Australia.

LP supercells are quite sought after by storm chasers, because the limited amount of precipitation makes sighting tornadoes at a safe distance much less difficult than with a Classic or HP supercell. During spring and early summer, areas in which LP supercells are readily spotted include southwestern Oklahoma and northwestern Texas, among other parts of the western Great Plains.

[edit]High Precipitation (HP)

High precipitation supercell

The HP supercell has a much heavier precipitation core that can wrap all the way around the mesocyclone. These are especially dangerous storms, since the mesocyclone is wrapped with rain and can hide a tornado (if present) from view. These storms also cause flooding due to heavy rain, damaging downbursts and weak tornadoes, although they are also known to produce strong to violent tornadoes. They have a lower potential for damaging hail than Classic and LP supercells, although damaging hail is possible. It has been observed by some spotters that they tend to produce more cloud-to-ground and intracloud lightning than the other types. Also, unlike the LP and Classic types, severe events usually occur at the front (southeast) of the storm. The HP supercell is the most common type of supercell in the United States east of Interstate 35 and in the southern parts of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada.

[edit]Mini-supercell or low-topped supercell

Whereas classic, HP, and LP refer to different precipitation regimes and mesoscale frontal structures, another variation was identified in the early 1990s by Jon Davies.^[9] These smaller storms were initially called mini-supercells^[10] but are now commonly referred to as low-topped supercells.

Source WIKWPEDIA

There Are so many different terms in severe weather and storm chasing .. i hope this has helped anyone not knowing ...

Dean D Davison

Lead Forecaster / Weather Manager

Storm Surge LLC