Landspout

A landspout is a type of tornado not associated with a mesocyclone.[1] The term was coined by atmospheric scientist Howard B. Bluestein in 1985. The Glossary of Meteorology defines a landspout as:[2]

> [A] colloquial expression describing tornadoes occurring with a parent cloud in its growth stage and with its vorticity originating in the boundary layer.

> The parent cloud does not contain a preexisting mid-level mesocyclone. The landspout was so named because it looks like "a weak Florida Keys waterspout over land."

Landspouts are typically weaker than mesocyclone-associated tornadoes spawned within supercell thunderstorms, in which the strongest tornadoes form.

## Contents

* 1 Characteristics
* 2 Life cycle
* 2.1 Mesocyclone transition
* 3 Damage
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## Characteristics

Landspouts are a type of tornado that forms during the growth stage of a cumulus congestus or occasionally a cumulonimbus cloud when an updraft stretches boundary layer vorticity upward into a vertical axis and tightens it into a strong vortex.[3] The parent clouds are often predominantly liquid when producing landspouts.[4] Landspouts can also occur due to interactions from outflow boundaries, as they can occasionally cause enhanced convergence and vorticity at the surface. These generally are smaller and weaker than supercell tornadoes and do not form from a mesocyclone or pre-existing rotation in the cloud. Landspouts can form in the flanking line of supercell thunderstorms, following the predominant formation area of landspouts in general within updraft zones without undercutting downdrafts. Because of this lower depth, smaller size, and weaker intensity, landspouts are rarely detected by Doppler weather radar.[3]

Landspouts share a strong resemblance and development process to that of waterspouts, usually taking the form of a translucent and highly laminar helical tube. "They are typically narrow, rope-like condensation funnels that form while the thunderstorm cloud is still growing and there is no rotating updraft", according to the National Weather Service (NWS).[5] Landspouts are considered tornadoes since a rapidly rotating column of air is in contact with both the surface and a cumuliform cloud. Not all landspouts are visible, and many are first sighted as debris swirling at the surface before eventually filling in with condensation and dust.

Orography can influence landspout (and even mesocyclone tornado) formation. A notable example is the propensity for landspout occurrence in the Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone (DCVZ).[6][7]

## Life cycle

Forming in relation to misocyclones and under updrafts, a landspout generally lasts for less than 15 minutes; however, they can persist substantially longer, and produce significant damage. Landspouts tend to progress through recognizable stages of formation, maturation, and dissipation, and usually decay when a downdraft or significant precipitation (outflow) occur nearby. They may form in lines or groups of multiple landspouts.[8]

### Mesocyclone transition

Rarely, a landspout may transition into a mesocyclonic tornado if the attendant misocyclone merges into a stronger mesocyclone.[citation needed]

## Damage

Landspouts are usually weak, typically not surpassing the EF0 category.[9] However, on rare occasions, they have been observed to reach up to EF2 and EF3 intensity.[10][11]

Examples of such unusually strong landspouts include:

* 4 October 2025 – Oppdal, Norway tornado – rated IF2;[12]
* 13 September 2025 – Montezuma Creek, Utah tornado – rated EF2;[13]
* 7 June 2021 – Weld County tornado – rated EF2;[14][15]
* 26 May 2018 – Kaniosy (pl) and Podkońce, Poland tornado – rated F2 (later upgraded to IF2);[16]
* 15 June 1988 – 4 landspouts struck the areas in and around the city of Denver, Colorado. Two of them were rated F1, one was rated F2, and another one was rated F3.[17][18][11]

## See also

* Dust devil
* Fire whirl
* Funnel cloud
* Gustnado
* Steam devil
* Tornadogenesis
* Vortex engine
* Whirlwind

## References

1. ↑ Bluestein, Howard B. (1985). "A History of Severe-Storm-Intercept Field Programs". Weather and Forecasting 14 (4): 267–270. doi:10.1175/1520-0434(1999)014<0558:AHOSSI>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 1520-0434. Bibcode: 1999WtFor..14..558B.
2. ↑ American Meteorological Society (2000). "Glossary of Meteorology, Second Edition". http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/browse?s=t&p=34.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wakimoto, Roger M.; Wilson, James W. (1989). "Non-supercell Tornadoes". Monthly Weather Review 117 (6): 1113–1140. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1989)117<1113:NST>2.0.CO;2. Bibcode: 1989MWRv..117.1113W.
4. ↑ Agee, Ernest; Jones, Erin (1 April 2009). "Proposed Conceptual Taxonomy for Proper Identification and Classification of Tornado Events". Weather and Forecasting 24 (2): 609–617. doi:10.1175/2008WAF2222163.1. Bibcode: 2009WtFor..24..609A.
5. ↑ Jones, Judson (8 June 2021). "The No. 1 US county for producing tornadoes just spawned another landspout". https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/weather/colorado-tornado-landspout/index.html.
6. ↑ Szoke, Edward J. (8 Nov 2006). "The Denver Cyclone and Tornadoes 25 Years later: The Continued Challenge of Predicting Non-supercell Tornadoes". 23rd Conference on Severe Local Storms. St. Louis, MO: American Meteorological Society. https://ams.confex.com/ams/23SLS/techprogram/paper_115160.htm.
7. ↑ Szoke, E. J.; Augustine, J. A. (1990). "A decade of tornado occurrence associated with a mesoscale flow feature: The Denver Cyclone". 16th Conference on Severe Local Storms. Kananaskis Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada: American Meteorological Society. pp. 554-559.
8. ↑ Forbes, Gregory S.; Wakimoto, Roger M. (1983). "A Concentrated Outbreak of Tornadoes, Downbursts and Microbursts, and Implications Regarding Vortex Classification". Monthly Weather Review 111 (1): 220–235. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1983)111<0220:ACOOTD>2.0.CO;2. Bibcode: 1983MWRv..111..220F.
9. ↑ "Tornado Facts". https://www.tornadofacts.net/tornado-types/landspout.html#.
10. ↑ "Storm Spotter Field Guide: Non-supercell Tornadoes". https://www.weather.gov/spotterguide/non_supercell.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Landspout Tornadoes continued..." (in English). The Dryline — The Official Newsletter of the National Weather Service in Amarillo (José Garcia): p. 3. Summer 2014. https://www.weather.gov/media/ama/Dryline_14SummerFinal.pdf.
12. ↑ "European Severe Weather Database". European Severe Storms Laboratory. https://eswd.eu/en?filter={"startCoordinates":{},"endCoordinates":{},"time":{"startDateTime":"2025-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","endDateTime":"2025-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"},"qualityLevels":[],"advancedFilters":[],"includeDeleted":false,"eventTypes":["TORNADO"],"countries":["NO"]}.
13. ↑ National Weather Service in Grand Junction, Colorado (2025). ﻿Utah Event Report: EF2 Tornado﻿ (Report). National Centers for Environmental Information. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=1295635. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
14. ↑ "June 7th, 2021 Weld County tornado". https://www.weather.gov/bou/June72021WeldCountyTornado.
15. ↑ "Storm Events Database June 7, 2021". National Centers for Environmental Information. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=953679.
16. ↑ "European Severe Weather Database". European Severe Storms Laboratory. https://eswd.eu/en?filter={"startCoordinates":{},"endCoordinates":{},"time":{"startDateTime":"2018-05-26T00:00:00.000Z","endDateTime":"2018-05-27T00:00:00.000Z"},"qualityLevels":[],"eventTypes":["TORNADO"],"countries":["PL"],"advancedFilters":[],"includeDeleted":false}.
17. ↑ "Tornado Archive". https://tornadoarchive.com/home/tornado-archive-data-explorer/#interval=1988-06-15T12:00Z;1988-06-16T12:00Z&map=-104.9337;39.7859;9.30&env_src=null&env_type=null&domain=North America.
18. ↑ Purdom, James F. W.; Weaver, John F. (October 1990). "A Satellite Perspective of the June 15, 1988 Tornado Outbreak in Denver, Colorado". American Meteorological Society. https://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/resources/docs/Purdom_Jun15tornadoes_1990.pdf.

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* Advanced Spotters' Field Guide
* Online Tornado FAQ

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