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Chennai: Residents of Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi experienced a rare tornado-like funnel cloud during a thunderstorm on Sunday, June 21, near the airport area.

The strong winds left at least six people injured and extensive damage in parts of the city. Despite visuals of the storm circulating online, the Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai has denied claims that it was a tornado.

According to the meteorologists, a strong thunderstorm initially developed over Tamil Nadu due to the presence of an east-west trough (an elongated region of relatively low atmospheric pressure) roughly 3.1 kilometres above mean sea level. The system resulted in upward-moving air currents, called updrafts, and strong localised winds, and dust lifting.

VR Durai, Director of the regional weather forecasting centre, Chennai, said, “The associated convective activity generated localised strong winds, dust lifting, and vigorous updrafts near Thoothukudi airport area.”

He said the “funnel-like feature” was most likely associated with the strong updraft beneath a cumulonimbus cloud, “which lifted dust and created a rotating or vertically stretched column of air,” he said. “It was more likely a localised convective vortex, dust whirl, or transient funnel cloud.”

Damage caused by storm

The storm uprooted trees and snapped electricity, causing significant damage to the Vaagaikulam toll plaza, a private theme park and other infrastructure. The temporary metal roof sheets built for the expansion of the airport were blown off and fell on workers and others standing nearby.

Visuals showed the scale of destruction and damage caused by the strong winds, as parts of concrete, broken branches and sheets of tin were seen on the ground.