<p>I experienced something completely nuts today and was curious if any weather gurus on here could explain what exactly it is that I saw.</p>
<p>My friend and I were on I-95 in North Carolina this afternoon and the the weather initially was bright and sunny. After about half and hour, however, we rounded a bend and saw a huge, huge dark storm cloud in front of us. The contrast between the cloud and the area that we were leaving was like night and day; it was probably one of the nastiest looking storm clouds that I’ve seen in my life. I accessed the NWS site through my blackberry and saw that the area was under a severe thunderstorm warning, which shouldn’t have been too big of a deal.</p>
<p>We drove straight towards this thing for about 20 minutes and eventually it was right over the top of us. It was dark as heck under the cloud, but there was no rain-just some lightning. As we rounded another bend in the road we saw a huge cloud, stretching from the ground to about 200 feet in the air. The cloud was about a quarter-mile wide and was moving. There was nothing (visible) connecting this ground-thing to the storm cloud above us, so we weren’t sure if it was a tornado or what. As we got closer to it the wind picked up, and since this thing was right on top of I-95 a lot of cars had pulled over to the side of the road, refusing to drive through this thing.</p>
<p>Traffic on both sides of the road had stopped, but several vehicles (including the one that I was riding in) drove towards it at about 10 mph. There was small debris (leaves, sticks, twigs) flying through the air as this cloud crossed the road, and the winds were gusty as we drove right through it, but it wasn’t tossing cars or anything. Visibility was down to about 30 feet in the thick of it though. After about 20 seconds, we passed through it, and saw some minor debris on the roadway but that was it. No rain the entire time.</p>
<p>So, can anyone tell me what the heck this thing could have been? Was it an EF0 or EF1 tornado? As far as I know, a tornado warning was never issued for the storm. I got the whole thing on video (the video is pretty nuts), but left my cord at school so it will be a few days before I can upload it anywhere. I’ve just never experienced anything like this, so was wondering what it could have been.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>