CLEAR SPRING, Pa. — It’s time for another Weather Rewind, where we look back at this past week’s weather with a twist.
Today we’re looking back at a funnel cloud spotted nearby in Adams County.
Incredible video showed a funnel cloud, but the National Weather Service could not confirm it actually touched the ground.
LET’S REWIND!
Storm chasers spotted a funnel cloud on Saturday near Clear Spring, Adams County.
NWS radar and weather trackers showed weak rotation in the atmosphere at 11:40 a.m. That’s right around the time it appeared.
A funnel cloud drops down from a thunderstorm and spins, but it doesn’t touch the ground.
After seeing the video, the State College NWS said, “Mike Levine—the storm chaser—reported a funnel cloud while traveling northbound along Route 15 near the county boundaries of York, Adams, and Cumberland counties. The video clip recorded supports a funnel cloud. We cannot at this point determine if it touched down and produced any type of damage. We have reached out to the ‘Adams County Emergency Management Operations Center’ and the ‘Cumberland County 911 Call Center.’”
No one found or reported any damage, so that means it was a funnel cloud.
However, finding damage with a storm doesn’t immediately mean there was a tornado.
Let’s talk about that.
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
Straight-line wind damage from a severe thunderstorm is easily confused with tornado damage.
Sometimes, straight-line winds are so loud, people might think they heard a tornado.
The damage pattern helps tell us which one. Two words tell us that key difference—in and out.
All winds flow into a tornado. Debris lays at angles because winds curve flowing into a tornado.
All winds flow out of straight-line winds. Debris lays in straight lines because the air flowing out of a thunderstorm is in the same direction.
Stay tuned for all the “whys” behind the weather wonders that capture our attention each week.