Met Office confirms sighting of funnel cloud by Kingussie
The Met Office has confirmed that a weather phenomenon spotted on the outskirts of Kingussie recently was indeed a funnel cloud.
Newtonmore man Allan Hampton asked local weather-watchers if he may have spotted a tornado or funnel cloud on his commute home earlier this month.
Allan Hampton was returning from work in Aviemore on August 10 when he saw the unusual addition in the sky by Lynchat at around 5.15pm.
He told the Strathy: “I stopped just outside the Kingussie side of Lynchat as it caught my eye and I was like ‘woah’ and pulled over...
“It was there for a few minutes that I saw and it dispersed while I was still there.
“It was up behind the golf course area of Kingussie and if it did hit the ground it was hidden behind the hill."
Mr Hampton also contacted the Met Office for verification and they have now got back to him.
A spokesperson for the Met Office confirmed the sighting.
He said: "As we can't see it touching the ground we can't confirm whether it was a tornado as such. There were plenty of heavy showers across Scotland on August 10th so it was the correct weather conditions for the formation of them.
A funnel cloud is a cone-shaped cloud which extends from the base of a cloud towards the ground without actually reaching the surface.
The Met Office has provided this link for more details on the formation of funnel clouds.
