DRAMATIC video shows a huge “twister” which descended from the clouds above the Scottish Highlands yesterday (sun).
Hill walker John Moran captured the amazing sight as he was trekking in the Bennachie range of hills in Aberdeenshire.
He posted the clip to a popular scottish hillwalking Facebook group yesterday writing: “Twister up Bennachie today”.
Speaking today John, an oil and gas technician, 33, said: “It was beautiful… I was with friends and was a pretty special moment as none of us had ever seen one before”
Many others were shocked to see the “twister” in Scotland.
Fiona Black commented on the post saying: “That’s mental. I’ve only ever seen a twister in Montana many years ago. Crazy to see . Nice wee vid.”
Jamie Eubanks wrote: “Tornadoes are so beautiful!”
Susan Cavana said: “We seen some in Mull over the weekend too.”
Chris Morris said: “Wow that’s unbelievable footage”
But others claimed that the phenomenon was technically a funnel cloud because it does not appear to be making contact with the ground.
Grant McLean wrote: “Looks like a funnel cloud to me. Pretty cool all the same. Good video.”
Joanne Davies wrote: “Amazing video but defo not a twister as it’s not touching the ground. Funnel cloud, I would say. Amazing.”
It is claimed that the UK gets more twisters per square kilometre than the USA.
Most UK twisters are small, but occasionally they can be big and cause a lot of damage.
This was the case in Birmingham in 2005 when a twister lasted for around 10 minutes and had wind speeds up to 145mph.
It uprooted around 1000 trees, injured 19 people and had a cost of around £40 million.
In 2014, a mini-tornado was also captured on video in Perthshire.
A funnel is generally regarded as a twister or a tornado when the cloud touches the ground, as this is when it is likely to cause damage and lift debris.
Funnel clouds and twisters usually form during thunderstorms or heavy rain from a cumulonimbus cloud or a large cumulus cloud, when the atmosphere is unstable.
They are usually cone-shaped and hang down from a larger cloud base.
They consist of condensed water drops and are characterised as having a large column of air rotating around the circumference of the column, which are drawn into the cloud.
A twister is another name for a tornado.
