You’re driving through the plains of Colorado or maybe the flat stretches of Florida. The sky isn't even that dark. There’s no massive, rotating wall cloud blocking out the sun, and the wind feels like a typical breezy afternoon. Then, you see it. A thin, wispy tube of dust stretching from the ground up into a high-based cloud. It looks like a classic tornado, but something feels off.
That’s a landspout.
Most people use the word "tornado" as a catch-all term for any rotating column of air, but meteorologists are a bit pickier. They have to be. To understand a landspout tornado, you have to throw out half of what you learned from watching Twister. These aren't the monsters born from massive supercells. They are the weird, lanky cousins of the tornado family.
The Core Physics of a Landspout Tornado
Standard tornadoes—the kind that level towns in Oklahoma—are "mesocyclonic." They start from the top down. A giant thunderstorm begins to spin, and that rotation eventually tightens and reaches for the ground.
A landspout does the opposite.
It starts at the surface. Imagine a line of air where the wind is blowing in two different directions. This creates a tiny, invisible spinning "tube" of air laying flat on the ground. Now, imagine a growing cloud (a cumulus congestus) moves over that spinning air. The cloud has an updraft, which acts like a giant vacuum cleaner. It sucks that horizontal spinning air upward, stretching it vertically.
Physics dictates that when you stretch a spinning object, it spins faster. Think of an ice skater pulling their arms in during a spin. Suddenly, that lazy swirl of dust becomes a tight, visible landspout tornado.
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Because the cloud doesn't have a rotating "engine" (a mesocyclone), the landspout is usually weak. It’s basically a waterspout over land. In fact, that’s exactly what the National Weather Service calls them in their official glossary: a "nontornadic" tornado or a "dust-tube tornado."
Why Landspouts Are So Hard to Predict
Predicting a "real" tornado is something the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is getting scary good at. They look for hook echoes on radar. They look for rotation in the mid-levels of the atmosphere.
Landspouts? They’re invisible to radar.
Radars usually beam their pulses at an angle. By the time the beam reaches a storm 50 miles away, it’s already thousands of feet in the air. Since landspouts start at the ground and are very thin—often just a few dozen yards wide—the radar beams literally fly right over the top of them.
Forecasters often only know a landspout is happening because a spotter calls it in. This is why you’ll sometimes see a Tornado Warning pop up on your phone when the sky looks "fine." The radar shows nothing, but a law enforcement officer just saw a tube of debris crossing a highway.
The Colorado Connection
If you want to see a landspout, go to the Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone (DCVZ). This is a fancy name for a spot east of the Rockies where the wind likes to swirl in circles.
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On a random Tuesday in June, you might see four or five landspouts in a single afternoon. They look terrifying in photos, but they often occur over open fields. They rarely hit EF2 strength. Most are EF0 or EF1, meaning they might peel some shingles off a roof or flip a shed, but they aren't going to erase a brick house from its foundation.
Honestly, the biggest danger with these is the lack of warning. Since they can form under clouds that don't even have lightning yet, people are often caught outside without a clue.
Landspouts vs. Gustnadoes: Don't Get Them Mixed Up
There is another weather phenomenon that people constantly misidentify: the gustnado.
A gustnado is just a swirl of dust on the leading edge of a thunderstorm’s outflow. It isn't connected to the cloud base. It’s just a "dirt devil" on steroids caused by a burst of wind.
A landspout tornado must be connected to a cloud. If you can see the tube of dust going all the way up into the bottom of the cloud, it's a landspout. If it’s just a chaotic swirl of debris at the ground near a rain shower, it’s probably a gustnado.
Why does the distinction matter? Liability and safety. A landspout can carry 100 mph winds and lift a car. A gustnado is usually just a very bad wind gust that lasts thirty seconds.
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Real-World Examples and Impact
Dr. Howard Bluestein, a legendary meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, was one of the first to really "prove" how these things worked back in the 1980s. He used portable Doppler radars to show that the rotation was happening at the ground long before the cloud showed any sign of a tornado.
Take the May 2014 outbreak in Colorado. There were nearly a dozen landspouts reported in a single day. Social media was flooded with images of these incredibly high-contrast, beautiful white tubes against a blue sky. To the untrained eye, it looked like the end of the world. To a meteorologist, it was just a "landspout day."
However, we shouldn't get complacent.
In June 1990, a landspout-type tornado hit Petersburg, Virginia. It was small. It was "nontornadic" by definition. But it killed two people and caused millions in damage. Just because it doesn't have a massive supercell attached to it doesn't mean it can't kill you.
Myths About Landspouts You Should Stop Believing
- Myth 1: They only happen in the afternoon. While they need heat to create updrafts, landspouts can happen whenever the wind conditions at the surface are right.
- Myth 2: You can outrun them in a car. Never try this. Landspouts are erratic. Because they aren't tied to a massive storm system moving in a predictable line, they can "dance" around or stall in one spot for ten minutes.
- Myth 3: They are "fake" tornadoes. If it’s a vortex of air in contact with the ground and a cumuliform cloud, it is a tornado. Period. The insurance company doesn't care if it was mesocyclonic or not.
How to Spot the Danger Signs
Since radar won't help you, you have to use your eyes. Look for "colliding" winds. If you see dust blowing one way and a nearby flag blowing another way, you have vorticity.
If a "cauliflower-looking" cloud (cumulus congestus) moves over that spot, watch the ground. You’ll often see a "debris cloud" of dust before you ever see the funnel itself. By the time the funnel becomes visible, the winds are already at peak strength.
What to Do If You See One
- Don't stop for a selfie. I know, the lighting is usually great for Instagram because there's no rain. Don't do it.
- Seek sturdy shelter. Even a "weak" landspout can toss a 2x4 through a window.
- Get away from glass. These things are notorious for picking up small rocks and gravel, turning them into shrapnel.
- Assume it's getting stronger. Landspouts can occasionally transition into more intense storms if the atmosphere is unstable enough.
Actionable Steps for Storm Safety
The most important thing you can do is understand your local geography. If you live in a place like the High Plains, Florida, or the Central Valley of California, landspouts are a part of life.
- Check the "Mesoscale Discussion": If you’re a weather nerd, look at the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) website. They will often mention "increased low-level vorticity" or "boundaries" that favor landspouts, even if they aren't predicting a major tornado outbreak.
- Install a weather app with "mPing": This allows you to report what you see to the National Weather Service. Since they can't see landspouts on radar, your "ground truth" report could save the life of someone a few miles down the road.
- Review your insurance: Ensure your homeowner’s policy covers "windstorm" damage. Most do, but some have weird exclusions for "non-supercell events" in specific agricultural zones.
Landspouts are a reminder that the atmosphere doesn't always follow the rules we see on the news. Nature is messy. Sometimes, it creates a tornado out of thin air and a little bit of heat, without the fanfare of a giant storm. Respect the "wispy" ones just as much as the giants.