Video shows Tornado-like storm in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi; MeT office says ‘adverse weather’

ATornado-like force beat-up Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi territory on dominicus with “ warm updrafts”. While visuals with claims of tornado over Thoothukudi were circulated on social media, the Met department denied the claim.The video of the tornado-like storm showed a column of wind swirling while clouds covered the sky.Also read: Convertible turns scrap of metal, driver confusion, chilling video: Scary details in BMW crash near MumbaiSharing the video, private weatherman Navdeep Dahiya said on X, “Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu reported Tornado today. A very rare sight from Tamil Nadu. Could be the first one from the state?” The MeT department explained the rare weather occurrence saying it was not a tornado and reported adverse weather due to presence of an east-west trough extending around 3.1 km above sea level across south Tamil Nadu, HT reported earlier.Also read: Keir Starmer to resign as UK PM soon? What may have led to his downfall - 5 pointsDirector of regional weather forecasting centre, Chennai, VR Durai said: “The associated convective activity generated localised strong winds, dust lifting, and ‘vigorous updrafts’ near Thoothukudi airport area.”“The observed 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, adding it was more likely a “localised convective vortex, dust whirl, or transient funnel cloud.”Also read: US-Iran complete first round of talks. But Trump's threat nearly threw them off courseThe gusty winds on Sunday caused widespread damage and even left six people injured after the temporary metal roofing sheets erected for the airport expansion works was blown off, causing them to fall on workers and members of the public.The incident occurred near the Vaagaikulam toll plaza area, where powerful winds suddenly swept through, news agency ANI reported. Visuals showed the scale of destruction and damage caused by strong winds as sheets of tins, broken branches of the trees, parts of concrete lay scattered on the ground. Glass windows of some vehicles were also smashed by the impact of the winds. The tin-sheet roofs of temporary structures put up for the ongoing expansion works at Thoothukudi Airport were unable to withstand the force of the wind and were ripped off, flying through the air before crashing onto workers and passers-by in the nearby Beatdown area.