On Sunday, June 21, the sky over Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu witnessed a rare weather phenomenon when a narrow, twisting column of cloud briefly formed and touched the ground, appearing as a weak tornado.
Videos shared by local weather enthusiasts and verified by meteorologists showed a funnel-shaped cloud extending from a thunderstorm and making contact with the surface, where it stirred up dust before dissipating. While it appeared relatively small and short-lived, experts confirmed that it was indeed a tornado-like formation, likely a landspout, which is a weaker type of tornado that forms from surface-level wind rotation rather than from a fully developed rotating storm system.
Meteorologists explained that such events require a combination of warm, moist air, strong upward-moving air currents within a thunderstorm, and a rotating air pattern near the ground. In this case, moisture supplied by the Bay of Bengal during the monsoon season likely contributed to the storm’s development, while local atmospheric conditions allowed a brief spin to intensify into a visible funnel.
Tornadoes of this kind are extremely rare in Tamil Nadu. Most tornado activity in India is concentrated in the eastern and northeastern regions, particularly West Bengal and Odisha, where severe pre-monsoon thunderstorms are more common. Southern India, including Tamil Nadu, does not typically experience the highly organised storm systems needed for strong tornado formation, making such sightings unusual.
Although no significant damage was reported in Thoothukudi, meteorologists noted that even weak tornadoes are significant because they reflect highly unstable atmospheric conditions within a thunderstorm system.
