Video: Waldo Wall Cloud
Date: July 16, 2000
Time: Approx. 3:40 PM ET
Location: Waldo, FL
Camera Used: Cannon Ultura digital vidcam (dash-mounted)
Camera Mode: Auto-focus/auto-iris
Videographer: Jim Carr / KC4MHH
19:33 [ 225 MB ] [ standard format ] [ WITH CAPTIONS ]

Video of a possible wall cloud passing over the city of Waldo, Florida. (We're not really sure what it is...some area of inflow for sure.) There were warnings issued for that area at tha time. After watching the cloud, the driver went south after passage of the event and then headed back north, immediately. As he did so, he ran into heavy rains and VERY strong winds which pushed his van around a bit, forcing him to pull off. It appears he actually ended up accidentally "core punching" without realizing it. Spotters really have to be careful about stuff like this! Unfortunately the spotter didn't remember to turn on his date/time stamp, OR to call in what he was seeing to the NWS. (Which means that as a result nothing was published in the Local Storm Report for the day.) So, unfortunately there is no record of it, EXCEPT in this video.

Note the gas prices at the time of the video: $1.58/gal. (Where are those prices, today?)

As the driver first pulls into Waldo, we get a brief chance to see a wider area of the sky, but there's a lot of whiteout/oversaturation so it's hard to tell what we're looking at in the surrounding sky. The area of inflow looks like it might be attached to something larger and taller.

In various places in the video, another ham operator on the radio is making mention of a thunderstorm warning being issued in the area. At another point the ham stated that the warning issued ten minutes previously had advised that the storm would be in the vicinity of Waldo "in the next ten minutes". Later in the video a dispatcher can be heard on the fire/rescue radio also repeating the severe thunderstorm warning (much later than it had been for some reason) "until 4:15 PM", and that "the severe thunderstorm will be near Waldo by 3:50", which would put the time slot sometime around or before 3:40pm in the day, would be my best evidence-garnered guess. So it would appear that the situation setup would seem to be possible.

UPDATE - 05/30/2011: I did have Chuck Doswell take a look at it and he advised "It looks like a true, rotating wall cloud to me, but it dissapates quickly, likely being undercut by outflow."

If an actual wall cloud, this could be the only known footage of one occurring in Alachua County.

Related Text Bulletins From The Day/Event:

• KJAX Severe Thunderstorm Warning # 0183 [ Courtesy Iowa Environmental Mesonet archives ]

Satellite Imagery:

• GOES 08 - Band 1 - Visible
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• GOES 08 - Band 3 - IR Water Vapor
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