Funnel Cloud over Varna, Bulgaria
May 27 2005 15 UTC (+- 10 min)
This is weird but I wanted to share with you... I'm not totally sure that I saw some funnel... only 99% :-)
The modified Bucharest sounding for 12Z showed about 1000 J/kg and weak negative SREH values so supercells are not possible. Unstable air mas, weak dynamic forcing, weak shear. The morning sky was filled with Ac Castellanus so it was obvious that thunderstorm will develop when the cap break after the insolation during the day. The ACCAST was visible on the morning sounding - high RH at 700 mb. T=27C, Td=18C, 6-7 m/s wind of out N, low on E, upperair trough on E.
Over my city passed about 5 Cb with very hard edges on the rear side and between them clear blue sky. The upper flow was out of NE while the sfc out of N so the precipitation was on the SW part of the Cb's. During the thunderstorm thy sky was filled with ACCAST - the same as in the textbooks! :) and turkey towers with dissipating base.
At around 15 UTC I saw that St. Fr. are moving fast from north under the updraft faster than before. Well I looked on E and they were moving fast from NNE. Then I looked at S and they were moving from NNW. On about 45-60 Degrees over the horizont S of me I saw rapid rotation of St. Fr/Scud/cloud material. Small cloud elements started to rotate in cyclonic manner. After that a birghter channel started to appear over that rotation. I guess the funnel but I'm not totally sure because I took the GSM to call our weather services. nahhh.... stupid angel:+] developing of funnel cloud can be the first sign of tornado over my home city! well may be I'm looking too much movies about tornadoes... I'm watched many things in the sky and the last time when I saw similar thing (it was before 7 years) the newspapers said about waterspouts. Since now I doesn't have confirmation of what I'm saw. I was a little bit nervous when took the gsm to call. Developing funnel cloud (if it was funnel cloud) is not a joke even from non supercell. It can fill with dust and garbage the ground. I don't remember how much time I spent with the gsm (somewhere between 30-60 seconds) but when I looked at the sky it was gone.... shame on me! :) I missed the action... anyway the roation was good.... fast moving small clouds to left and in the same time fast moving small clouds to the right at the same place on the sky...
Angel Dimitrov
Varna, Bulgaria