No, that wasn’t a tornado in North Texas on Tuesday. It was a gustnado, NWS says
Not only did North Texas see scattered rain showers Tuesday, but residents of Prosper had a close encounter with a “gustnado” — a weaker distant cousin of a tornado.
The environment today is NOT supportive of tornadoes. This video is of a gustnado; a weak distant cousin of an actual tornado. These can form along the leading edge outflow winds & are NOT connected to the storm. They may move lightweight objects like a large dust devil #dfwwx https://t.co/RHZV17knsl
— NWS Fort Worth (@NWSFortWorth) August 9, 2022
A gustnado is a whirlwind that forms near a thunderstorm’s outflow boundaries, said Allison Prater, a metereologist with the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office. They’re not technically classified as tornadoes since they do not connect to any rotation to the cloud base, classifying them more as thunderstorm wind events.
Like a dust devil, which is another smaller whirlwind event, some stronger gustnados could cause damage, but are mainly smaller events, Prater said.