JERSEYVILLE - Weather atmosphere conditions created a funnel cloud or clouds that touched the ground and went immediately back up in Jerseyville on Tuesday afternoon.
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Jerseyville Police reported the weather incident to the National Weather Service in St. Louis.
“The atmosphere conditions weren’t favorable for tornadoes,” Fred Glass a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said. “It was hard to determine if there were one or two funnel clouds spotted. It could have been people observing from a different angle. I talked to the police and they observed it (the funnel cloud) go down and then come back up and down again and back up. It bounced up and down for a while it appears. A storm spotter in the city also reported seeing a funnel cloud. We aren’t certain if it was the same cloud or a different one.”
A funnel cloud consists of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud (usually a cumulonimbus or towering cumulus cloud) but not reaching the ground or water surface. A funnel cloud is usually visible as a cone-shaped or needle from the main cloud base. Often, funnel clouds are a precursor to tornadoes.
Glass said there were some reports of tree limbs down from the thunderstorm conditions, but nothing else as of late Monday.
“Those kinds of funnel clouds scare people for certain,” Glass said. “People get a little worried any time they spot a funnel cloud.”
If you have a photo of the Jerseyville funnel cloud, e-mail dbrannan@riverbender.com or text (618) 623-5930.
