Module 04: Identifying rotation

Where rotation actually lives in a storm, what the word for it means, and why most of it never produces a tornado. (25 min)

Striations, inflow bands and the beaver tail: what an updraft looks like when it is turning, and how precipitation placement decides how much of it you get to see. (25 min)

The feature spotters are most often looking for, its definition in full, and the three signals that decide whether it is worth a radio call. (30 min)

The dry downdraft that wraps around the circulation, the bright slot that gives it away, and why its arrival is the opposite of good news. (30 min)

Ragged cloud fragments, rain shafts and outflow features generate most bad rotation reports. Here is what they are, and the checklist that stops you filing one. (30 min)

The one definition every spotter is expected to know cold, and the three near-misses around it. (30 min)

The technique that separates rotation from drift, the minimum time it takes, and why a photograph can never be a rotation report. (20 min)

Rotation you cannot see, in a line, inside the rain, or in the dark, and how to be useful anyway. (30 min)

Everything in this module, applied to one documented event where almost nothing was visible and the warnings went out anyway. (30 min)