Skygazers near Amarillo, Texas, were treated to the breathtaking sight of a cumulonimbus “mushroom” cloud associated with a thunderstorm southeast of the city Tuesday evening.
A cumulonimbus cloud is a towering, vertical cloud containing a thunderstorm, formed from water vapor forced upward by powerful upper-air currents.
Brian Archuleta shared the following photo from his drive home from work Tuesday evening, when the cumulonimbus cloud hovered in the sky. Notice the classic mushroom-like appearance, which is why cumulonimbus clouds are colloquially called mushroom clouds.
(Twitter/Brian Archuleta)
These clouds can form in squall lines, in clusters or all alone, as this one did Tuesday evening. They are capable of producing thunder, lightning, hail, strong winds and tornadoes.
The National Weather Service in Lubbock, Texas, had issued a severe thunderstorm warningon this storm about 7:50 p.m. CDT. However, there were no reports of large hail, damaging winds or tornadoes in the Texas Panhandle on Tuesday, so the mushroom cloud was more photogenic than harmful.
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It was a prime example of what meteorologists refer to as an isolated thunderstorm. As you can see in the two photos above, skies surrounding this lone cumulonimbus cloud were mostly clear.
Satellite imagery also captured the isolated nature of this storm, as shown by the billowing clouds and denoted by the white arrow in the animation below.
(Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere/Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch)
No big deal…we get these often from July to September–our “rainy season”…