Smallest Tornado Ever?

[Jeff Wright]

That’s a dead link now.
Antonio Hernandez filmed a very narrow tornado in Maine, Wisconsin on August 10 as per usatornadoes.com

 

[Warren Faidley]

I've always said there are two things never to trust while chasing. A fart and a vortex. I've seen (like a lot of us here), a ten-yard-wide vortex turn into a monster tornado in seconds. As for the fart......

 

[Jeff Wright]

This recent event might be a candidate for the smallest:

The Maine WI event

 

[Jeff Wright]

About the same size as the one above:

This one looks to be even smaller..not a gustnado as it was on radar:

The very compact rope that gave rise to Jarrell was also compact. This waterspout almost seems as concentrated:

Watch: Towering Waterspout Forms Ahead of Monsoon - Videos from The Weather Channel

A fisherman spots a waterspout off the coast of Thailand shortly before a storm rolled in. - Videos from The Weather Channel | weather.com

weather.com

 

[Ethan Schisler]

I think it would be hard to put into perspective the size of any tornado unless we have the exact survey data. In which case it would be the smallest tornado ever surveyed. A lot of times with tornadoes, the tornadic winds extend beyond the condensation funnel which makes the damage path wider than what the tornado may appear. This isn't the case all the time, but some times.

So once again goes the saying that "big tornadoes aren't necessarily stronger". Smaller tornadoes may appear that way, but could in fact but satellite tornadoes to larger tornadoes or have an expanding wind field. So I think its honestly impossible to say. 10 yards is probably the narrowest I've seen surveyed around here. Usually is the "go to" for an EF-U type tornado or landspout.

 

[Rick Schmidt]

I think this one is a pretty good candidate. It appears in the upper left hand corner at about 1:28.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I don't know the actual size, but this one appears quite narrow:

Then there's this one from the standard-def/480p days from Europe. I keep a list of these extraordinary encounters.

 

[Mike Smith]

It would be nice if operational meteorology could ignore these. Unfortunately, as we know, there is little correlation to appearance of the vortex and its intensity. The atmosphere is so very complex.

 

[Jeff Wright]

True.

Visually, they are delightful…more interesting than wedges that can look like a distant fire.

A very narrow dust devil that came to a point and left a beautiful little track…the funnel having writ, moves on:

 

[Jeff Wright]

A thin rope carving across Iowa recently—that almost came to a point:

 

[Jeff Wright]

A narrow rope

https://weather.com/storms/tornado/video/kansas-tornado-twists-turns-near-gas-station

 

[Rick Schmidt]

That was small?