Satellite Tornadoes - What are they?

The National Weather Service today confirming that there have been a total of five tornadoes that hit the Stateline on Thursday, with two of those being called "satellite tornadoes." But what are satellite tornadoes?

Satellite tornadoes form around a large "main tornado," but are completely separate from it. This makes it different from subvortices, which actually form inside the large tornado. The smaller tornadoes will orbit the main tornado, and have also been known to rotate in an anticyclonic motion- or clockwise, which is unusual. Normally tornadoes rotate cyclonicly, or counter-clockwise. The satellite tornadoes do form within the same mesocyclone- or supercell, however.

The National Weather Service is reporting that two satellite tornadoes hit the Stateline Thursday night. One of those formed near the town of Lindenwood, and was an EF-0 tornado. The second was near Kirkland and was rated at an EF-1.