Satellite tornado

Sometimes two tornadoes occur together; one of them is larger, and usually called the main tornado. The other is smaller. It is called a satellite tornado. It interacts with the same mesocyclone. Usually, the two are seen as separate tornadoes, and not as one tornado with many vortices. The cause of satellite tornadoes is not known. Such tornadoes are more often anticyclonic than are typical tornadoes and these pairs may be referred to as tornado couplets. Satellite tornadoes commonly occur in association with very powerful, large, and destructive tornadoes, indicative also of the strength and severity of the parent supercell thunderstorm.

A tornado with an associated satellite tornado. The large tornado on the right is the 1999 Bridge Creek – Moore tornado and the small tornado to the left is a satellite tornado.