Tornado (not a Buick)

[Snapshot]

I have never heard that term either. They were talking about it on the news yesterday.

 

from Wiki...

 

A gustnado is a specific type of short-lived, low-level rotating cloud that can form in a severe thunderstorm. The name is a portmanteau of "gust front tornado", as gustnadoes form due to non-tornadic cyclonic features in the downdraft from the gust (outflow) front of a strong thunderstorm, especially one which has become outflow dominated. It has little in common with tornadoes structurally in terms of vertical development, or in regard to intensity, longevity, and formative process (as classic tornadoes are associated with mesocyclones in the upflow of the storm, not the outflow).

The average gustnado lasts a few seconds to a few minutes, although there can be several generations and simultaneous swarms. Most have the winds of an F0 or F1 tornado (up to 180 km/h or 112 mph), and are commonly mistaken for tornadoes. However, unlike tornadoes, the rotating column of air in a gustnado usually does not extend all the way to the base of the thundercloud. Gustnadoes actually have more in common with whirlwinds (which include dust devils, whirlwinds that form due to superheated surface layers and stretched vorticity, most commonly on sunny, warm days with light winds). They are not considered true tornadoes (unless they connect the surface to the ambient cloud base) by most meteorologists and are not included in tornado statistics. Sometimes referred to as spin-up tornadoes, that term more correctly describes the rare tornadic gustnado that connects the surface to the ambient clouded base, or to relatively brief tornadoes associated with a mesovortex,

[Snapshot]

According to the news, this is a cold air funnel in Tucson about 30 minutes ago

[Edge]

Nice pic, looks like several funnel clouds forming.

 

Doesn't take long these days for a catchy phrase to become lexicon. Seems like just yesterday El Nino was a mexican anchor child.

[.270]

monsoon is the one that pisses me off. monsoon has nothing to do with north america, or even rain. monsoons are the winds that bring the rainy season to asia. all the vets coming home from viet nam talked about the monsoon when they came home and the weather babes started calling our rains monsoons after that. there useta be a weather guy in tucson, a real weather guy too, seems like his name was fogleburg or some deal. he would get plum stupid on tv about folks sayin' monsoon. said they should be called sonorans, because they come up from there. he ended up bein' a coke head too, but i liked his rants. now this new haboob deal. sheesh. i about kicked the screen outta my tv a couple years ago because they said that about 10 times in 30 seconds and i could'nt find the remote. what the hel l is wrong with "dust storm"? then all this "tornadick" and "cyclonic" bs. everbuddy lookin' to make up a catch phrase. it's all simple. wind, rain, snow, fog, sunshine, twisters, dry weather, fartnados. we don't need anymore fancy words. Lark.

 

and p.s.- buick never made a tornado. oldsmobile did make a car called a 'toronado', tho. has an extra 'o' in it.

[Edge]

monsoon is the one that pisses me off. monsoon has nothing to do with north america, or even rain. monsoons are the winds that bring the rainy season to asia. all the vets coming home from viet nam talked about the monsoon when they came home and the weather babes started calling our rains monsoons after that. there useta be a weather guy in tucson, a real weather guy too, seems like his name was fogleburg or some deal. he would get plum stupid on tv about folks sayin' monsoon. said they should be called sonorans, because they come up from there. he ended up bein' a coke head too, but i liked his rants. now this new haboob deal. sheesh. i about kicked the screen outta my tv a couple years ago because they said that about 10 times in 30 seconds and i could'nt find the remote. what the hel l is wrong with "dust storm"? then all this "tornadick" and "cyclonic" bs. everbuddy lookin' to make up a catch phrase. it's all simple. wind, rain, snow, fog, sunshine, twisters, dry weather, fartnados. we don't need anymore fancy words. Lark.

 

and p.s.- buick never made a tornado. oldsmobile did make a car called a 'toronado', tho. has an extra 'o' in it.

 

"Not a Buick."

 

That weather guy in Tucson, is that the same one that was stalking a fellow anchor lady?

 

Haboobs should only strike in pairs and make for titilating motor boat sounds.

[hoghntr]

L.O.L. whoever would have thunk cowboys could be so funny!

 

Saw some water funnels while playing Giligan they are pretty darn cool looking. Personally i think we have always had tornados here cuz in my last 43 years in phx i have some big stuff moved from point a to point b during storms with no logical esplanation.. .

[Snapshot]

I remember the Haboob epidemic. Meteorologists were saying it like they just invented the wheel. I think the NWS has somebody that sits in a little room dreaming up names for storms and weather activities, such as "Hurricane Bob".

[hoghntr]

In 70's we had daily haboobs! I would be riding my atc and look southeast and say "we have 20 min" and believe you me at 20 min you better be blazing trail home or dust-hail-huge rain drops would about knock me off my 3 wheeler. Terminology may be new but not the storm

[billrquimby]

As always, I agree with Lark on the miserable misuse of the words "monsoon" and "haboob." When I first saw monsoon used in print in a Tucson Citizen article about our summer thunderstorms, I went to the reporter who had written the front-page story and complained.

 

The guy was a self-centered know-it-all from Michigan who a year later was named the paper's city editor. He shrugged and said it was a perfectly good word and walked away.

 

I'm convinced his article led to the word being used by nearly everyone in Tucson's media and eventually spread to that place I won't name up the road. As for haboob, it started being used long after I left newspapering.

 

A better word for an Arizona duststorm, if one is needed (which it isn't), would be scirrocco. Haboobs originate in the Sudan, which has a lot of tropical vegetation.

 

Scirroccos are hot, dusty (or rainy) winds that blow across North Africa, which is more like Arizona than the Sudan.

 

Bill Quimby

[Edge]

What's more sillier is assigning a date for the commencement and exit of said moisture laiden winds. It's not a freaking UPS package, people.

 

Haven't heard them called Sonorans before, but I like it!

 

Bill, how long ago are we talking about those newspaper articles?

[billrquimby]

Edge: It was sometime in the mid- to late-1970s, as many as 40 years ago. Bill Quimby

[Edge]

Edge: It was sometime in the mid- to late-1970s, as many as 40 years ago. Bill Quimby

Interesting. I was in high school in Tucson then (Go Cougars) and learning to appreciate meteorology and hearing the term 'monsoon' for the first time. Just after Nam too so it's all coming together.

[.270]

all i remember is he had red frizzy hair in a kind of an afro, didn't have much hair on top and had bushy red mustache. i think his name was fogleberg or fogle something. he would really get to ranting sometimes about weather stuff, especially about the use of monsoon. plum comical. then he got busted for coke and fired and i never heard of him again. he was a real degreed weather guy and i liked his reports. my dad always watched him because he could count on his report being the closest to right. being a farmer then, with no fancy radars and stuff, he had to depend on the weather man a lot. Lark

[.270]

it's al fogleman. found an article about him and some news babe and coke use. anyway, he hated monsoon too. Lark

[Edge]

I remember him, Lark.

 

Yes, the actual meteorologist in broadcasting is rare these days. The NWS provides most forecasts complete with quips and pleasantries and the anchors read them on air word for word and rarely take the initiative to actually look outside.