2330.19z
UNISYS Water Vapor North and East Hemispheric Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)
This was the water vapor satellite at about the time of the touchdown.
The system developing over Illinois has a very diffuse shape.
The air mass offshore California is more than interesting. Compare this water vapor satellite with the current water vapor satellite and it is easy to discern this system was a vortex forming and not what is normally coined as a tornado. The super large wedge is definitive to that understanding.
1130.18z
UNISYS North and West Hemispheric Water Vapor Satellite
There is a film clip in cyberspace that shows a tractor trailer being pulled off the highway by the tornado formation a long distance away. That is the force of the formation of a hemispheric votex taking shape. The feeder system is huge and extremely powerful. The tractor trailer has a large surface area compared to the van the storm chasers were using. The feeder system was significant and caught the large surface area of the truck in it's path.
There was a third video I saw that showed the wedge and a trailing cloud formation that was nearly touching terra firma. That is more of the evidence the wedge was expanding to form the upper tropospheric vortex.
The other diagnostic observation is the fact there are not sparks showing snapped power lines in any of the videos, even in this one where the storm crosses the road. The most powerful winds were at the center. The reason the power lines 'spark' does not show up is because all that is happening at a strong center not at all visible from the exterior of the turbulence.
This storm was not the usual tornado. The actual center of the storm was shrouded by less powerful and more dense clouds.
