Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I guess it’s tornado season?

In Idaho?


This was about 10 miles from the farm. We didn’t even get wind to speak of. My farm help got a text from his mom with a video of the funnel, she was driving home from the store.

Touched down in a field for about two minutes. No damage to people or structures.

In Idaho?

https://www.ksl.com/article/50673189/unsettled-weather-causes-very-brief-tornado-in-eastern-idaho

They aren't unknown here in ID but I've never heard of one doing any more damage than tearing the roof off of a cow shed or knocking down a wooden fence.

15 years in Minnesota and the upper Midwest, then you haven't seen much then Rock Chuck.

back in the early 70s when I was working south of Chattanooga TN for the summer, there was one that touched down in Cleveland TN, just to the north of Chattanooga. It walked right thru town on old Routes US 64 and US 11., and flattened everything on 10 blocks on each side of it...

it was dropping livestock, roofs, sides of houses, pickups and Oldsmobiles up to 80 miles east of town....

I remember in the paper there was a picture of a farming pointing as what looked like a smashed Washing Machine up in an oak tree....although it wasn't a washing machine... it was a Volkswagen Bug... 70 miles east of Cleveland TN. A closeup of the picture, you could see the license plate on the 'washing machine'.

The pics posted above by Dutch... those are called Dust Devils back east, especially down south. Those are harmless...
I've even seen those in NY State and New England.

I could be wrong, but, I believe Mr. Chuck was talking about tornado damage in Idaho.

We had the loudest clap of lighting, and thunder I've ever heard.

We had at least three yesterday in WY.

There's a huge difference between a tornado and a dust devil. A tornado originates in the air in a clash between warm and cold air movements. A dust devil forms as the surface of the earth is heated by the sun. As the air near the surface warms, it rises leaving a low pressure gap near the surface. As air rushes in to fill the gap, it starts to turn. You can get tornados any time of day. Dust devils are only possible on hot sunny days.
The one Dutch posted is a tornado.

Here too! We may have had more yesterday than in a typical year! memtb

There is also a third phenomenon called a land spout, which is like a waterspout but...well, you guessed. We had several such spouts in Utah just recently. They are neither dust devils nor tornadoes, but something of a cross between them. Cause by horizontal wind shear. They form at low altitude, neither at ground level like a dust devil, nor high up as in a thunderstorm tornado. They are also midway between the two as to strength.

I think what Dutch posted was just such a spout. The stratus clouds give it away, being neither sunny nor t'storm.

We had 2 last Sunday nite, in our neck of the woods. Radar indicated and one showed a debris field on radar. Never did hear about any property damage.

Last time I was in Nevada this spring I saw 8-10 of those in one field.

Okay, but NWS is calling it a tornado after first thinking it was a gustnado. Or so says news reports and NWS Twitter.

Okay back at ya. I could only go by the photo, and I'm not a full-blown (pun intended) meteorologist. Just an amateur weather nut.

Tornadoes are pretty rare in the Rockies. The topography tends to prevent their formation, and even when they do, they're quite weak. Barely an F-1 usually.

Usually pretty weak/tame……but, not always! 😉 memtb

https://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/local/article_c4cdd504-e176-5d02-973d-4e2056b911fb.html