Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Is This A Tornado?

Let me first say that I support the decision of the National Weather Service 100%. They ruled the damage in Mississippi County as straight-line wind damage and there is a good chance that it WAS straight-line wind damage, BUT maybe that damage was not caused by what I see in the above video. If this is a tornado, it appears to be over the Big Lake area and there is really not much for it to damage in that part of the county. If you look close, you can see some trees getting knocked around and some water being kicked up... but there are not any homes, cars, etc in the path. Yes, it is possible to have damage from straight-line winds... and have a tornado nearby.

In my opinion, this is a tornado. It's a weak tornado, but a tornado. The NWS did a great job issuing the warning on this storm, because the radar signatures were not overly impressive. I believe there was one scan that showed the rotation. I showed that radar image in an earlier blog post.

So, what do you think? Is it a tornado? Comment in the comments section...

Ryan

9 comments:

Justin Gehrts said...

Oh, that's a tough call. It does appear that, from :35 until toward the end, there's some evidence of that lowering actually having an influence with the ground. If it was a tornado, it was very weak and looks like it was only a brief touchdown. I think even if the NWS had surveyed in that very spot, they wouldn't have found any conclusive evidence of a tornado.

M M said...

I agree it was a short-lived and weak tornado. Rotation was clearly visible, but little debris. The wind chop on the lake and the SOUND made from it was definite proof that this was no photoshop.

Anonymous said...

Ryan....I would think so....
Mark Scirto

Brett Adair said...

Ryan,

Given the storm structure and the visible large funnel cloud that was very low and close to interacting with the ground.....if any damage were found at that location it would definitely be hard not rule that a tornado. Weak, but certainly looks like a touchdown to me. Wish we could see some kind of debris or a tighter zoom.

Jason H said...

Yes, a tornado. Very weak. Clear rotation, and touchdown.

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Looks like a tornado to me. Since a lot of the path appears to be over water, there may be little or no damage on the ground that can be attributed with absolute certainty as tornado damage.

James' Mom said...

Looks enough like a tornado to make me run away from it!

Heidi said...

Wouldn't that technically be a waterspout? Unless it interacted with land, for sure?

B. Pilcher said...

I am the one that caught the TORNADO on video. In person, you could clearly see debris being blown around. I'm an amateur "videographer"-sorry about that! I do good to answer the phone! The truck felt like it was going to be sucked in the water - I was already planning an escape, just in case. P.S. The fish weren't biting either.