Pilot Captures Supercell Storm, Amazing Wall Cloud Near Paris

When I think of supercell thunderstorms, wall clouds and tornado alerts, I'm more likely to think of Paris, Texas than Paris France.

As viewed from a plane: A dangerous supercell
thunderstorm near Paris, France.  

But western Europe this week had an outbreak of severe storms and supercells, which killed six people in Germany as winds knocked down trees onto buildings, people, cars, etc.

There were even some reports of tornadoes and baseball sized hail from the supercells.

As you can see in this photo, a airplane pilot captured a shot of a huge supercell with a rotating wall cloud (on the left of the storm, the thing that sort of looks like a rounded boot).

The photo rivals any of the dramatic shots of tornadic storms that regularly come out of the High Plains of the United States.

Supercells and tornadoes occasionally to happen in Europe, though. These storms aren't exclusively North American creatures. Still, this storm outbreak is one of the worst Europe has seen in quite some time.