ROANOKE, Va. – Footage from the Wichita, Kansas NBC-affiliate, KSN, showed the moments a large tornado traveled north of Alta Vista, Kansas Wednesday night.
The weather world (on social media) began posting about its textbook appearance. That’s something we took note of during post-storm analysis.
Using archived radar imagery, we saw the textbook hook echo that accompanies supercell tornadoes.
Cold, dry air on the western flank and warm, humid air on the eastern flank spun violently, resulting in that hook shape you see below.
Meteorologist Parker Beasley explained supercell structures in our 30-minute severe weather special, When Minutes Matter.
[WATCH When Minutes Matter here!]
In addition to the tornado, there were also reports of large hail on the northern edge of the storm.
The system responsible for producing this tornado will move toward Virginia, but we are not expecting severe weather out of it.
We’ll see a few scattered showers before midday Friday before a few more hit-or-miss showers try to cross the mountains after 8 p.m.