Funnel cloud seen high over West Side (Tucson AZ)

[Eric Friedebach]

Larry Copenhaver, Tucson Citizen, March 8, 2005

Last weekend's sight was nothing to fear because the cloud didn't touch down, a meteorologist says.

A funnel cloud spotted high above Tucson during the weekend was a sign of very violent weather, but as long as that turbulence stays away from the ground, there's not much to worry about.

"If it's up above the surface, not touching the ground, it's really not doing any damage," said Pamela Elslager, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "They don't do damage until they actually touch down, which is somewhat of a rare circumstance here."

The one spotted over the Tucson area, probably at about 3,000 to 4,000 feet above ground level, developed from a low-pressure system, she said. "And we did have some rotation, and some had some wall clouds, and we had a couple of funnel clouds with some of those."

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?pag...805_funnelcloud

 

[David Drummond]

Wow, what kind of a message does THAT send?

"Nah, nothin' to worry about here folks, it's only a funnel cloud, now if that there thang come on down then we gotta git!"

 

[bill mudd]

well last June I was sitting in the airport at salt lake city and noticed some upper level funnels (much less than the one you show here in tuscon) and no one paid any attention to them because they were one right after the other and they were more than fingers but not really funnels - and they were running over the hilly mountain caps
I actually think Salt Lake got hammered a couple years ago , anyone?

 

[Jeremy Lemanski]

yes, F2 that killed one person, first ever death from a tornado in Utah's history. I think it was in june of 1998 or 1999.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Actually it was August 11, 1999.

 

[JHadorn]

Didn't they get some pretty good footage of that one in Salt Lake City? I seem to remember seeing some footage of a tornado and seeing the Tabernacle.

 

[Jeremy Lemanski]

Actually it was August 11, 1999.

Your right, hmmm.... for some reason i had june stuck in my head, i know it had to do with some severe weather around my area also, give or take a day. Now i need to do some searching.