Editing Wall cloud (section)

== Supercell and tornado significance ==
[[File:Classic supercell thunderstorm.gif|thumb|left|A schematic of classic supercell features. See also: [[:commons:File:Low_precipitation_supercell_thunderstorm.gif|LP]] and [[:commons:File:High_precipitation_supercell_thunderstorm.gif|HP]] supercells]]
[[Image:Alfalfa Tornado - NOAA.jpg|thumb|A tornadic wall cloud with [[Rear flank downdraft|RFD]] '''clear slot'''.]]
The wall cloud feature was first identified by [[Ted Fujita]] and as associated with tornadoes in tornadic storms following a detailed site investigation of the [[1957 Fargo tornado]].<ref name="Fargo">{{Cite journal |last=Fujita |first=T. |author-link=Ted Fujita |year=1959 |title=A detailed analysis of the Fargo tornadoes of June 20, 1957 |url=https://swco-ir.tdl.org/items/b7611b4f-3c4a-4ebb-90e9-36570ac5b543 |url-status=live |journal=U.S. Wea. Bur. Res. Paper 42 |page=15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531094858/https://swco-ir.tdl.org/items/b7611b4f-3c4a-4ebb-90e9-36570ac5b543 |archive-date=31 May 2024}}</ref><ref name="Fujita">{{Cite journal|last=Forbes |first=Gregory S. |author-link=Gregory S. Forbes |author2=H.B. Bluestein  |title=Tornadoes, Tornadic Thunderstorms, and Photogrammetry: A Review of the Contributions by T. T. Fujita |journal=Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=73–96 |date=2001 |doi=10.1175/1520-0477(2001)082<0073:TTTAPA>2.3.CO;2 |bibcode = 2001BAMS...82...73F |doi-access=free }}</ref> In the special case of a [[supercell]] thunderstorm, but also occasionally with intense [[multicellular thunderstorm]]s such as the QLCS above, the wall cloud will often be seen to be rotating. A '''rotating wall cloud''' is the area of the thunderstorm that is most likely to produce tornadoes, and the vast majority of [[Glossary of tornado terms#T|intense]] tornadoes.

[[Tornadogenesis]] is most likely when the wall cloud is persistent with rapid ascent and rotation. The wall cloud typically precedes tornadogenesis by ten to twenty minutes but may be as little as one minute or more than an hour. Often, the degree of ascent and rotation increase markedly shortly before tornadogenesis, and sometimes the wall cloud will descend and "bulk" or "tighten". Tornadic wall clouds tend to have strong, persistent, and warm inflow air. This should be sensible at the surface if one is in the inflow region; in the Northern Hemisphere, this is typically to the south and southeast of the wall cloud. Large tornadoes tend to come from larger, lower-wall clouds closer to the back of the rain curtain (providing less visual warning time to those in the path of an organized storm).

Although it is rotating wall clouds that contain most [[Glossary of tornado terms#T|strong]] tornadoes, many rotating wall clouds do not produce tornadoes. Absent the co-position of a low-level boundary with an updraft, tornadoes very rarely occur without a sufficiently [[buoyant]] rear flank downdraft (RFD), which usually manifests itself visually as a drying out of clouds, called a '''clear slot''' or '''notch'''. The RFD initiates the tornado, [[Occluded front|occludes]] around the mesocyclone, and when it wraps completely around, cuts off the inflow causing death of the low-level mesocyclone (or "tornado cyclone") and tornadolysis. Therefore, in most cases, the RFD is responsible for both the birth and the death of a tornado.

Usually, but not always, the dry slot occlusion is visible (assuming one's line of sight is not blocked by precipitation) throughout the tornado life cycle. The wall cloud withers and will often be gone by the time the tornado dissipates. If conditions are favorable, then, often even before the original tornado lifts, another wall cloud and occasionally a new tornado may form downwind of the old wall cloud, typically to the east or the southeast in the Northern Hemisphere (east or northeast in the Southern Hemisphere). This process is known as cyclic tornadogenesis and the resulting series of tornadoes as a [[tornado family]].

The rotation of wall clouds is usually [[Cyclone|cyclonic]]; [[Anticyclonic tornado|anticyclonic wall clouds]] may occur with anti-mesocyclones or with mesovortices on the leading edge of a QLCS (Again, this relationship is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere).<ref>{{cite book|last=Stull|first=Roland B.|title=Meteorology for Scientists and Engineers|year=2000|publisher=Thomson Learning|isbn=9780534372149|edition=2nd}}</ref>