Best Part Of The Chase Knocked On My Back Door

A little fatigued from my chase up to around 7:00 pm CDT on Thursday, August 4, 2016 , I decided to stop at home briefly and then set up and wait close by for another line of severe storms approaching from the west. My spotting choice was Oliver Court in the Bowman Meadows housing development in Marion, Iowa, just off Boyson Road and about .15-mile west of Alburnett Road. Oliver Court is currently an open cul-de-sac on a slight rise of ground with a good view of the west sky and is only .65-mile from home. My attention was fully on waiting for the line of storms to the west, but like any smart spotter knows one should check out the full 360 degrees. Good thing too. Overhead in the southeast sky around 7:30 pm, I observed a curious group of miniature dark "puffs" of cumulus form in a vertical chain, then coalesce into a tube of air and begin to drop. The above image, captured at 7:32 pm, shows the funnel forming about 2 miles distant.

The above and below image show the funnel quickly developing less than a minute later. My vehicle is shown in the foreground for scale. It seemed to me that the funnel and the cloud it emanated from was "swimming upstream" of the approaching line of severe storms in the west. Strangely, no reports were made of this funnel and apparently no notice was made of it, but it was the highlight of the day's chase and occurred virtually in my own back yard! Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

Below are two radar screen images corresponding to 7:35 pm. In the first, note the line of severe storms to the west and the white circled area indicating the area where the funnel emanated from. The target icon shows my position.