Those thunderstorms created some very interesting clouds earlier today….

Viewers sent in some cool pictures of the clouds as the thunderstorms came rolling across the area.

Take a look at this one from Westerly. 

 It was taken looking to the west from Watch Hill overlooking Little Narragansett Bay.  Notice the dark gray area on the left hand side of the picture…that is the rain/hail falling.  The unusual looking cloud structure hanging down in the middle of the picture is called a wall cloud.  This is an area where warm air is rising up and into the thunderstorm…known as an updraft.  Notice how the cloud is sloped outward and upward from the precipitation shield to the left.  

Sometimes tornadoes can come out of these wall clouds…if you look closely, you can see some dark gray, individual elements hanging down from the cloud.  No funnel clouds or tornadoes were reported with these storm, so it is probably safe to say those protrusions are just clouds…but an interesting photo nonetheless.

Here is another picture sent in from a viewer.  This one was taken in South Kingstown over Worden’s Pond.  These clouds differ from the wall cloud above.  The clouds over Worden’s Pond are shelf clouds…they represent an area of the thunderstorm where cooler air is rushing down in front of the storm, known as an outflow, or outflow boundary.  Notice how these clouds are pointed away from the precipitation and the thunderstorm. 

Also reported from today’s storm, but we have no pictures:

Peacedale: 1/4″ to 1/2″ hail on Spring Street
Narragansett:  Quarter sized hail on Kingstown Road
Westerly: 41mph wind gust
Narragansett:  1/4″ to 3/8″ hail on Point Judith Road
Charlestown:  1/4″ hail

If you ever see some interesting weather, please send us your reports and phots to weather@wpri.com!

-T.J.