Landspout
A landspout is a term coined by meteorologist Howard B. Bluestein in 1985 for a kind of tornado not associated with the mesocyclone of a thunderstorm. The Glossary of Meteorology defines a landspout as
Landspouts form during the growth stage of convective clouds by stretching boundary layer vorticity upward and into the cumuliform tower's updraft. They generally are smaller and weaker than supercellular tornadoes and do not contain a mesocyclone or pre-existing rotation in the cloud. Because of this, landspouts are rarely detected by Doppler weather radar.
Landspouts share a strong resemblance and development process to that of waterspouts, usually taking the form of a translucent and highly laminar helical tube. Landspouts are considered tornadoes since a rotating column of air is in contact with both the surface and a cumuliform cloud. Not all landspouts are visible, and many are first sighted as debris swirling at the surface before eventually filling in with condensation and dust. Landspouts are most common in semi-arid climates characterized by high cloud bases and considerable low-level instability. These conditions tend to favor the High Plains of the United States from Spring through Summer.
