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Stunning supercell thunderstorm photographed in Central Virginia
Last edited Sun May 18, 2025, 07:44 PM - Edit history (1)
Stunning supercell thunderstorm photographed in Central Virginia
Jason Samenow
On Thursday, a towering, rotating thunderstorm, or supercell, erupted in Central Virginia. The storm, resembling a flying saucer, formed near Harrisonburg and then tracked southeast toward Charlottesville.
Peter Forister, a storm chaser and photographer, captured beautiful images of the storm and shared them on social media.
With a structure more typical of tempests in the Great Plains, the storm’s cloud top penetrated 50,000 feet and then, like a barber’s pole, stretched toward the ground.
The National Weather Service, detecting the storm’s rotation, issued a tornado warning, but no twister was confirmed. However, Forister photographed a rotating wall cloud at the storm’s base — from which tornadoes sometimes form.
{snip}
Jason Samenow
Peter Forister ⚡️🌪️⚡️
@forecaster25
Barber's Pole supercell over Crozet, Virginia this evening.
Top-tier storm structure in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. #vawx
Image
10:54 PM · May 15, 2025
48.2K Views
@forecaster25
Barber's Pole supercell over Crozet, Virginia this evening.
Top-tier storm structure in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. #vawx
Image
10:54 PM · May 15, 2025
48.2K Views
Link to tweet
On Thursday, a towering, rotating thunderstorm, or supercell, erupted in Central Virginia. The storm, resembling a flying saucer, formed near Harrisonburg and then tracked southeast toward Charlottesville.
Peter Forister, a storm chaser and photographer, captured beautiful images of the storm and shared them on social media.
With a structure more typical of tempests in the Great Plains, the storm’s cloud top penetrated 50,000 feet and then, like a barber’s pole, stretched toward the ground.
The National Weather Service, detecting the storm’s rotation, issued a tornado warning, but no twister was confirmed. However, Forister photographed a rotating wall cloud at the storm’s base — from which tornadoes sometimes form.
{snip}
