Thunderstorms with “strong updrafts” were reported over Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu on Sunday even as the Meteorological Department denied a cyclone over the region amid widespread online claims of the weather phenomenon being visible.
A video clip of the weather phenomenon was widely circulated on social media.
Thoothukudi is located about 650 km from Chennai.
While sharing the video, private meteorologist Navdeep Dahiya said on Channel X: “Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu reported a cyclone today. A very rare sight from Tamil Nadu. Could it be the first from the state?”
“A rare cyclone in Thoothukudi. This is the rarest of the rarest,” said Pradeep John, a Tamil Nadu-based meteorologist.
However, the regional meteorological department said it was not a cyclone and reported severe weather due to the presence of an east-west depression extending about 3.1 km above sea level across southern Tamil Nadu.
“The associated convective activity generated locally strong winds, raising dust, and ‘strong updrafts’ near the Thoothukudi airport area,” Chennai Regional Weather Forecasting Center Director V R Durai said.
“The observed funnel-like feature was likely related to the strong updraft beneath a cumulonimbus cloud, raising dust and creating a rotating or vertically expanding column of air,” he said, adding that it was most likely “a localized convective vortex, dust vortex, or passing funnel cloud.”
