Weather Insider: Types of funnel clouds

With all the wet weather across Southern California today, we certainly had a lot of cool clouds to look at throughout the day. Most notably, a funnel cloud that formed over the mountains!

There are some clouds that can look like funnel clouds but really aren't. These choppy, broken clouds are called scud clouds and are often found a the base of a thunderstorm. It's important to note that these clouds are detached from the thunderstorm itself and DO NOT rotate.

There are also two main types of funnel clouds. The most common type is your traditional cone-shaped cloud found extending downward from severe thunderstorms. These clouds DO rotate. These clouds are often a precursor to tornadoes, but not always.

There are also cold-air funnel clouds. These are caused when particularly cold air is present above a relatively warm layer of air near the surface. This is what we saw today.

Crucially, what we saw today was NOT a tornado! A funnel cloud only becomes a tornado if/when the funnel reaches the surface. Cold-air funnels rarely actually become tornadoes. Even when they do, they only cause little to no damage, typically only achieving an EF-0 rating.