Mesoscale Vortex

Those with keen eyes may have noticed a nifty little hook in the cloud pattern over the lake in the previous post.

Turns out there was what is known as a mesoscale vortex over the lake this morning.  You can see it in the loop below.  Note how it drifts southward across the SW corner of the lake.

How about a high res MODIS image?  At this time, the center of the hook, which almost forms an eye, was sitting over the far SW corner of the lake.

Source: NASA

This lake-effect stuff is sure complicated.  I'm not sure if this vortex was lake induced or something in the larger-scale flow that just happened to be passing over the lake.