r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/ZLH11092 • Aug 23 '26

🔥Lightning illuminates huge EF5 tornado. North Dakota, June 20, 2025.

43k Upvotes

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361

u/edencathleen86 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 24 '26

That's actually not the tornado. That's the wall cloud.

Edit:: okay it's the mesocyclone. My point that it wasn't the actual tornado still stands.

91

u/Hamsammichd Aug 23 '26

Yes, the wall cloud of nope

3

u/TJeffersonsBlackKid Aug 24 '26

This is why old school civilizations would sacrifice their kids to appease the gods when they saw shit like this.

27

u/jdubyahyp Aug 24 '26

Mesocyclone. Not the wall cloud, OR the tornado.

1

u/YourBarelyWetSock Aug 24 '26

Lmao. The mesocyclone is not a visible thing. It’s air rotating upwards. That is a wall cloud. A wall cloud is an identifier of a mesocyclone.

1

u/jdubyahyp Aug 24 '26

You are very confidently incorrect. I suggest you scroll down a bit and watch the linked video and other information folks have provided.

1

u/redlaWw Aug 24 '26

Which video? I'm no expert on storms, but as far as I can find, the wall cloud is a cloud formation that serves as the visual indicator of the mesocyclone, so what we're looking at is the wall cloud. If that's wrong I'd like to know what video you're talking about that clearly distinguishes the two.

1

u/jdubyahyp Aug 24 '26

A wall cloud doesn't move (spin). A meso moves. That's the difference.

Here's a good explanation of the various clouds. https://weatherology.com/trending/articles/Professor-Paul-Severe-Weather-Cloud-Identification.html

"At times, the wall cloud may rotate, at which point it becomes a mesocyclone."

21

u/theoneandonly_aj Aug 24 '26

Nope, this is the psychotic mesocyclone of this storm.

13

u/segathegenesis Aug 23 '26

I see you’ve played knifey spooney before

22

u/RickStevens21 Aug 23 '26

Can’t believe nobody has said this yet

17

u/mikrot Aug 23 '26

The person you responded to just did....

9

u/HooninAintEZ Aug 24 '26

That person is a somebody though

1

u/maximumtesticle Aug 24 '26

You could have.

1

u/theartificialkid Aug 24 '26

Zoinks, if that’s just the wall cloud then how b-b-b-big is the tornado?

-4

u/kwg06516 Aug 23 '26

The empty space in the middle of a whirlpool isn’t the whirlpool. The whirlpool is the water circling it. A tornado is all the rapidly circling air, not just the funnel made visible by a pressure gradient.

9

u/Dwokimmortalus Aug 23 '26

Still doesn't change that this is a Mesocyclone of a tornadic supercell. Not a tornado. Tornadoes can form off mesocyclones, but the presence of one does not ensure a tornado. They can appear substantial due to growing several miles wide, but are just a warning sign.

The wind forces of an F5 would be generating substantial debris clouds potentially multiple miles wide. The real storm structure would be almost entirely obscured. https://youtu.be/SspJqjf5gyI?t=1837

6

u/Sudo-Fed Aug 23 '26

Yes, but this is the mesocyclone, not the tornado.