funnel cloud


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funnel cloud

[′fən·əl ‚klau̇d]
(meteorology)
The popular term for the tornado cloud, often shaped like a funnel with the small end nearest the ground.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

funnel cloud

A tornado, or vortex cloud, extending downward from the parent cloud but not reaching the ground.
An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
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"I saw the clouds going in opposite directions before I got to the garden centre then the funnel cloud started forming just as I was in the car park."
'Turranado' captured on camera
"They are sometimes seen as threatening funnel clouds descending from stormy skies.
Rare waterspout spotted off RAK
Tennessee's definition was closest in comparison to the NWS definition, stating, "A tornado is a violently rotating column of air, pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud." While this definition is almost an exact one, it leaves out a crucial concept that the circulation must reach the ground to be classified as a tornado.
Defining hazards
Residents took these photos of a funnel cloud in the skies above Rugby at about 1.15pm on Tuesday.
This weather is round the TWIST! Mini-tornadoes form during stormy conditions
We also hiked out of town to come within about a mile of a (weak, not-very-threatening) funnel cloud.
Storm clouds and star clouds: make the sky part of your annual summer vacation
Eric Atcheson said he saw the funnel cloud form and touch down near his church.
Washington state tornado hits hard
FUNNEL CLOUD: When the mesocyclone strengthens, a rotating cloud in the shape of a cone forms near the bottom of the thunderstorm.
Winds of terror
Alone in the depths of my fears and self-reproach, an unexpected calm washed over me--a preternatural stillness in the path of the ominous funnel cloud.
A lifetime in the review mirror: a close encounter with a powerful force of nature gives writer Steve Lewis a new perspective on his regrets
Witnesses even spotted funnel cloud in McHenry County, about 50 miles (80 km) Northwest of Chicago.
5 Dead as Tornadoes Ravage US Midwest
DELUGE: Funnel cloud hits Isle of Lewis and crowds flee for cover in Bexhill yesterday
BRITAIN IS HIT BY FRENCH DRENCH; 3 weeks' rain in 3 HOURS in storms from across Channel
That massive funnel cloud left 24 dead in its wake and demolished large swathes of the town with winds above 200 miles (322 kilometres) per hour.
Over 14 Killed in US Midwest Tornadoes
They made it home but not before spotting the funnel cloud.
It's part of living here

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