Strange Tornado in Southern Manitoba

[John Hudson]

Couldn't believe it when I heard reports of a tornado southeast of here late Saturday afternoon. There were a few small thundershowers around, but nothing of substance.

The cell that produced this "tornado" was tiny, in fact the highest returns on any of the cells in that area were meagre, and I was really surprised they were able to produce anything, even a weak tornado or landspout.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/06/01/manitoba-tornado.html?ref=rss


John

 

[Mark Sefried]

Definitely looks like a landspout to me. I remeber several years ago in Central IL where a similair event took place. Several loundspouts formed under weak developing thundershowers. Perhaps there was a boundary of some some sorts where they developed?

 

[Skip Talbot]

You don't need much of a storm to produce a spout. Towering cumulus are common spout producers.

 

[Scott Lincoln]

We had many of those in Iowa during 2004. That picture looks similar to ones I remember seeing around here. That year became one of our biggest "tornado" years on record, but it was likely due to the anomalously large number of landspouts.

 

[joel ewing]

Actually, that seems like a pretty good one! And I'd bet that it's not all that small once you were to get right up on it.