Funnel cloud in my neighborhood

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Hello all.

I understand the 48 hour rule applies only the States so I am posting it here.

This afternoon at around 12:00-12:15 UTC, a funnel cloud was visible from my home in Laguja, Estonia. The video of the event clearly indicates there was in fact rotation. At this point I cannot confirm whether any ground contact took place, so I am sticking with funnel cloud in this report. The cloud was seen in north-northwestern sky.

Here is a short edited video of the event as it unfolded:
Watch video >

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Here is a timelapse I made of the minute consisting of footage shot over 9 minutes.
Watch video >

There is some suspicion that there might have even been a touchdown but from my vantage point there is too much uncertainty to call it a tornado per se.

 

[Simon Andersen]

Nice! Do you have any radar screens from the time of observation? Use the estimated cloud base height from sounding data to calculate the distance between you and the vortex, you should be able to find a general location where you can look for damage. I think it would be worth your time.

 

[Terrence Cook]

That looks pretty impressive, I would lean toward a brief touchdown but damage could be tough to find as its rotation appears weak. Nice find.

 

[Skip Talbot]

I'm most impressed with how stationary the feature is. I don't think I've ever seen a funnel hold that steady over one spot before. It's condensed low enough that it's almost safe to assume it's a tornado. Generally a funnel that is down 3/4's of the way to the ground or more has some sort of corresponding and visible ground circulation. Whether it's tightened up enough to do any serious damage is another story, but I bet there was at least a whirl in a field underneath that thing. It would have been fascinating to get a lot closer to that. You could get really close to such a stationary funnel and really study the movement.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Good point Skip. Several other weather people I've been in contact have also suggested there may have been a ground contact. I was at a weather enthusiasts reunion yesterday and was able to present the timelapse video. I am going to continuing to work on this event today as yesterday I was busy with attending the reunion.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

In regards to radar data, I made a few snapshots, but they aren't probably going to be much help. I will go however through 12Z surface observations, including the readouts from my personal weather station and figuratively speaking, lift a few parcels to see how high the LCL was. I have the azimuth of the funnel pinned down to the nearest degree though so far. I also have determined the exact spot where I made the observation to the accuracy of a couple of meters. I should point out finding observation site was easy since it was in my home farm on the driveway, so I have 24/7 access to it

Stay tuned.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Update: I have now concluded that the Friday's event likely was a tornado. Estimated distance from my neck of the woods 5 to 6 km. Azimuth 341-342 degrees. I had been going also through my video footage and based on that it appears that the condensation funnel at times may very well have been less than 600 feet above the surface. Maybe even 500. At this point it seems indeed likely that at least for a short time the circulation may have been in contact with the surface.

So with that, I've passed the baptism of fire I just hope the event if it happens on my watch(figuratively speaking), will be more clear cut(but not serious obviously).

I attach a version of the tornado time lapse with azimuth/altitude grid and timestamp.