Supercell Formation

The development of a long-lived, rotating thunderstorm built around a persistent rotating updraft, or mesocyclone, which forms when strong vertical wind shear tilts horizontally spinning air into the vertical within a sufficiently unstable atmosphere. Supercells are the most organized and often the most severe form of convective storm, capable of producing the largest hail, the most damaging straight-line winds and the great majority of the strongest tornadoes.