A Funnel Cloud in a Convective Cloud Line to the Rear of a Surface Cold Front

Abstract

This brief case study describes the unusually benign environment in which a funnel cloud formed along a line of convective towers during the summer in Kansas. The parent cloud line was solitary and very narrow, yet organized on the mesoscale. The cloud line appeared to be best correlated with a zone of horizontal temperature gradient to the northwest of cool (evaporatively produced) outflow from an area of precipitation located just to the rear of a cold front. Implications for forecasting such an event are noted.