CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — A local blog induced panic online Monday afternoon after it mislabeled a cloud formation.
Scioto Post, which bills itself online as “Pickaway Counties [sic] biggest news outlet ….” posted a video online showing clouds hovering over the Circleville area. In the posting, the blogger posted a video of the cloud with a caption that read “Wall cloud rolling into Circleville.”
The issue with the posting is that the video induced panic, according to local officials. The video posted was not a “wall cloud,” which is commonly associated with tornadic activity. Instead, local meteorologists in Columbus said the video appeared to show a “shelf cloud,” which is totally different and arguably much less threatening and dangerous.
“I see a shelf cloud,” Spectrum News Ohio’s Chief Meteorologist Eric Elwell told the Guardian. “There is no rotation with what I am seeing in that video.”
Wall clouds and shelf clouds are sometimes mistaken for one another by the untrained eye, according to a spokesperson for the National Weather Service. Both of the storm features look to hang down from storms and oftentimes they can be mistaken for one another, however, that is why it is important to get weather reports from trained storm spotters and not social media reports, the NWS said.
“A shelf cloud will usually be associated with a solid line of storms. The wind will come first with rain following behind it. It may appear to rotate on a horizontal axis,” the NWS told the Guardian. “Wall clouds will rotate on a vertical axis, sometimes strongly. The wall cloud is much smaller and more compact than a shelf cloud and is usually under a rain-free cloud base.”
In order to garner more attention for his blog, the poster replied to citizens in the comment portion of the social media website when they called him out on being wrong.
“I’d really like to know who the person is that titles these weather reports,” asked online commentator Dakota Tracker. “Maybe take a ‘Skywarn’ class before making these reports.”
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