The Tornadocane
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The Tornadocane was a hurricane shaped and tornadic supercell thunderstorm that took place on April 15, 1999 over Duplin County, North Carolina. Tornadocane is a portmanteau of the words "hurricane" and "tornado" due to the fact that the storm was hurricane shaped and was tornadic. This was one of the most unusual and bizarre supercell thunderstorms ever observed.
[edit] Formation and effects
It began as an HP (Heavy Precipitation) supercell and moved across North Carolina while becoming the Tornadocane and then exited North Carolina as a Bow Echo. One tornado spawned from this supercell was .8-1.6 km (.5-1 mi) wide, caused major damage, injured 11 people, and created a 48 km (30 mi) damage track. A death and a 265 km/h (165 mph) wind gust were also reported with this storm. This wind gust is thought to have come from a direct hit to an anemometer by a tornado, making the tornado an F3. The reason this storm took on such an unusual shape was because the storm produced a gust front on its rear flank which caused the development of more storms. These newly triggered storms, in combination with the frontal flank of the storm, curved into spiral bands which rotated around the bounded weak-echo region (BWER) and thus created the shape of a hurricane on the Doppler radar. This storm was not in any way related to a hurricane other than the fact that it was shaped similarly to one.
 The Tornadocane on Doppler Radar |
 Filtered Image of the Tornadocane, All dBZ Reflectivity Less Than 35 is Taken Out |
 Storm Relative Velocity Showing Rotation in the Storm |
