http://www.zoovip.com/file.php?id=147

Can you hear the japanese guy yelling "GODZILLA!!!" haha.. maybe i'm lying...

 

That wasn't a tornado... That was just a dust devil. Down under they are called ***** *******.

 

Oh, we don't get those around here... i'm from Boston

 

No biggie, they are similar, both are a column of rotating air. Main difference is that a toronado generates wind, and comes from the sky down out of a cumulonimbus cloud, it is also a self suffecient storm.

A dust devil or whirlwind is a rotating updraft, ranging from small (half a meter wide and a few meters tall) to large (over 10 meters wide and over 1000 meters tall).Dust devils can be dangerous or harmless depending on their size. They are comparable to tornadoes, but form during fair weather and are very rarely as strong.

We get both here, as a kid I use to chase dust devils and try to run or ride my bike through them. First big one like that that I seen, scared me a little. It started off small so we were chasing it, then before I knew it it was taller than the tree's and spewing branches and stuff around. I didn't ride through that one... I just stood there with my mouth open going; WOW.....

 

Here I found actual definitions at wikipedia....

Dust Devil:
Dust devils form in areas of strong surface heating, typically under clear skies and light winds, when the sun can warm the air near the ground to temperatures well above those just above the surface layer. Once the ground heats up enough, a localized pocket of air will quickly rise through the cooler air above it. The sudden upward rush of hot air causes air to speed horizontally inward to the bottom of the newly forming vortex. As more hot air rushes in toward the developing vortex to replace the air that is rising, the spinning effect is intensified. The dust devil, once formed, is a funnel-like chimney through which hot air moves both upwardly and circularly. If a steady supply of warm unstable air is available for the dust devil, it will continue to move across the ground. However, once the warm unstable air is used up, the dust devil ends

Tornado;
A tornado is defined by the National Weather Service (NWS) as "a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and...a thunderstorm."[6] A tornado does not necessarily have to be visible; however, the low pressures caused by the fast wind speeds (see Bernoulli's principle) usually cause water vapor in the air to condense into a visible condensation funnel. In strong tornadoes, dirt and debris kicked up at the surface can contribute to the visibility of the tornado, in addition to changing its color depending on the color of the debris.

 

Cool.

 

A day doesn't go by during the summer out here without seeing at least 2 or 3 of them. It's a trip to drive through one...

 

Tornado's in the middle of a soccer game, huh???


Like this?

well, it's table soccer.

 

We also get a fair amount of those dirty windy spinny things around here


I remember back when I was 10 or so, during a t-ball game, a tornado came a long. It was perfectley fine out, then it got dark and super windy faster than you can say 'holy *****'. Everyone just took off running and I was standing there like 'What??'

 

I thought this story was going to end as the first time you gave birth to the "baby elephant".

 

[QUOTE=PSS-Mag]No biggie, they are similar, both are a column of rotating air. Main difference is that a toronado generates wind, and comes from the sky down out of a cumulonimbus cloud, it is also a self suffecient storm.

just to add a bit...Tornados are typical observed to originate from Cumulonimbus Mammatus cloudforms. The mammatus version of a cb has an UDDER apperance to it.



second picture shows the "dropping" or "hook" portion of the cloud that is a frontline indicator of Tornadic activity.


hope this helps.

 

The mamatus and hook pics look like an X to me.

 

a red x at that.

 

I've watched the Dallas Tornado play soccer in the old school NASL when I was a kid. (I just showed my age.)

 

that was awesome. I didnt realize the wind was that strong up until it blew that tent away.