Possible tornado in Melbourne AUS

Just had a friend travelling around Victoria Australia and spotted this just out of Melbourne.
Cannot find any news links to it yet, but
his image


and the Bureau's screenshot


looks like a tornado imho - although I only know what I've seen on TV. We very rarely get them down here in little oz.

What do you reckon? This on an island called French Island (SE of Melbourne).

I'd say it looks more like smoke, possibly from a wildfire. Those clouds definitly aren't Cumulonimbus - the kind that produce tornados.

Here's another photo of wildfire smoke that looks like a tornado:


Source

Why was the last thread closed? Is there any way you could remove links to bring it back up. The problem was probably one of the links you posted. But yes its a tornado. Not smoke. Seems to be in the middle of nowhere so reports may not ever happen on a "trusted" source site.

Didn't you already post this?I'm assuming it was deleted....and no,it isn't a tornado.It's smoke.And there's still no reports of one happening there.

That's what I'd have thought also, but it looks like a debris base, shows up on rainfall radar, and moved on radar.

reply to post by lavenlaar


How come your last thread was removed?

Anyway, as I said there it's smoke and if it is in the direction of French island like you say, it's a controlled burn...

French Island. Smoke may be visible from Phillip Island, Tooradin, Warneet, Cannons Creek, Hastings, the Mornington Peninsula and along the South Gippsland Freeway.

www.dse.vic.gov.au...

Map:


www.dse.vic.gov.au...

reply to post by nightstalker78


apparently wasnt alternate enough.
So was told to post here, at least more weather minded ATSers here

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by lavenlaar

 

How come your last thread was removed?

Anyway, as I said there it's smoke and if it is in the direction of French island like you say, it's a controlled burn...

French Island. Smoke may be visible from Phillip Island, Tooradin, Warneet, Cannons Creek, Hastings, the Mornington Peninsula and along the South Gippsland Freeway.

www.dse.vic.gov.au...

Thanks mate -
I knew someone could verify something.

Originally posted by lavenlaar
reply to post by nightstalker78

 

apparently wasnt alternate enough.
So was told to post here, at least more weather minded ATSers here

Ahh that makes sense.Your original thread was linked to facebook too.But anyway...see it ended up being smoke.Having been through a few myself you know what they are!.I realize australia doesn't get them like we do here in the US though.They can be flat out scary at times.

reply to post by Fazza!


Though they may not be termed tornadoes, rotating columns of air can form in cloudless skies. They can also occur in many cloud forms. So youre right, its not a tornado per say, but I'm still going with a violently rotating column of air. The debris at the base is compelling evidence in my opinion. To bad theres not a cow flying around it, that might help a bit in determination. The op should tell his friend to drive to it and take a closer photo.

Oh good, a solution, guess it is probable that it is smoke from this controlled burn. Wonder what theyre burning.

The op should tell his friend to drive to it and take a closer photo.

lol - it's an island

I almost became a resident of French Island. The place has a MASSIVE population of Koala's, I've never seen so many in the wild as there was there. I even saw some galloping across a field! (as hard as that is to believe)

At the dock, there is a row of the worst cars you've ever seen, most missing doors and windows etc. The kids are allowed to freely drive them over the island! The electricity on the island (at the time I was planning the move there) is purely self generated, really off-the grid lifestyle. Wonderful place.


But, the pic looks like a fire (as chad proved) which could be worrying on an island with very little emergency response resources. But outside today is pretty cool and calm, perfect for a burn-off.

reply to post by DarkSarcasm


That's true. Quite often the warm updraft from a fire, coupled with turbulent wind conditions at the surface, will create eddys which can tighten up into tornado-like vortices. I found a nice little video of a smoke tornado and have posted it below

In this case however, I think the 'debris cloud' is a result of the smoke mixing in with the turbulent boundary layer air. It's not impossible for the column to be rotating, but very unlikely.

Originally posted by Qumulys
I almost became a resident of French Island. The place has a MASSIVE population of Koala's, I've never seen so many in the wild as there was there. I even saw some galloping across a field! (as hard as that is to believe)

At the dock, there is a row of the worst cars you've ever seen, most missing doors and windows etc. The kids are allowed to freely drive them over the island! The electricity on the island (at the time I was planning the move there) is purely self generated, really off-the grid lifestyle. Wonderful place.


But, the pic looks like a fire (as chad proved) which could be worrying on an island with very little emergency response resources. But outside today is pretty cool and calm, perfect for a burn-off.

Hope it's not a controlled Koala burn ...

Or an un-controlled one.