Pilot captures video of plane circling landspout tornado
A pilot in Oklahoma found himself side-by-side with a funnel, which turned out to be a weak landspout tornado.
Pilot David Evans thought he was just going to be taking his plane for a spin Sunday, but as it happens, it wasn't the only thing he got.
According to a tweet posted by his wife, Evans was flying between Minco and Tuttle, Okla., when he found himself side-by-side with what turned out to be a landspout tornado.
At the time of the encounter, there were a cluster of thunderstorms in the vicinity of the reported flight path. According to the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla., the twister couldn't be spotted on radar. It also lacked "large-scale weather features" that would have normally caught the attention of meteorologists looking for potential tornadoes.
The Washington Post reported Evans came across a broad, weak, invisible circulation, which was rapidly sucked into a cloud developing overhead. It extended up to the cloud base, allowing it to become "[narrower] and [to] strengthen." Shortly after, a funnel cloud appeared.
Unknown to Evans at the time, but the funnel reportedly did have a ground circulation attached to it, officially making it a landspout tornado, but certainly a weak one at that.
“It was really pretty,” Evans told the Washington Post. “It went from base of clouds...it was a rat’s tail-looking thing.”
Thumbnail courtesy of David T. Evans.