the.com/landspout
a tornado that skips the storm and builds itself straight off the ground up
means A weak tornado that forms from the ground upward, spun up by surface-level winds rather than descending from a supercell's rotating storm cloud.
from A modern American meteorological coinage, modeled on its cousin 'waterspout' — the older term for a whirling column over water. Swap the water for land, and you get a 'landspout': a spout that rises from solid ground. The word likely gained traction among storm researchers in the late 20th century as they distinguished these humbler, ground-born twisters from their fearsome supercell kin.
- bottom-up
- Spins from the surface, not a parent storm aloft
- weak cousin
- Usually weaker than supercell tornadoes, but still dangerous
- dusty tell
- Often visible only by debris and dust swirling upward
- clear skies
- Can form under harmless-looking growing cumulus clouds
- sea twin
- Essentially a waterspout that wandered onto land
lubbock texas landspout 1970 — tornado that struck lubbock on may 11, 1970, causing $135 million in damage
grand rapids michigan 2012 — landspout that touched down in june 2012 in western michigan during a derecho