BRIEF SMALL TORNADO – 18th January 2008

On 18th January 2008, at around 8:20 am, a small tornado was seen briefly to the WNW of San Gwann for about 5 minutes. There also was a report of the same tornado to the south west of Maghtab over Madliena. Yet another report and photos show the tornado just off the coast at Sliema at around 8.15am.

The clouds and tornado were moving NE-SW. As can be seen from the sounding and hodograph to the right there was an unusual type of wind shear – anticlockwise wind shear, but this was enough to create this brief tornado. Weather at the time of the tornado was isolated showers with small hail – there were no reports of any strong wind or damage caused

PHOTOS TAKEN BY MARCUS CAMILLERI & ALBERT SCHRANZ