SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – A possible cold air funnel (similar to a tornado) may have been responsible for damage seen in a Springfield neighborhood Monday afternoon. Damage including downed trees, broken fences, shingles blown off of rooftops, and a greenhouse pulled off its foundation as the storm moved through the neighborhoods between 42nd and 47th streets in Springfield.
There is no official confirmation if it was a cold air funnel or not, but meteorologists from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Portland tell KEZI 9 News that the storm cell did show signs of rotation while it was moving across the region.
Since our atmosphere is very unstable from the upper level low spinning off the coast and the jet stream to our south, it can create a shear or crossing of the winds within a thunderstorm. Cold air funnels are usually very small, only reaching an EF-0 or low end EF-1 wind speed, but can still create enough swirl to do localized damage.
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Cheryl Scott says:
October 22, 2012 at 10:02 pm (UTC -7)
Wow, I think I saw it bounce over my house on South 46th. Was looking out the window up at the sky during a particularly stormy few minutes and saw this cloud of leaves and debris swirling maybe 100-200 feet overhead. It was really strange and disconcerting. But the wind on the ground wasn’t particularly strong at the time. Did not occur to me that anything like a “cold-air funnel” could even exist — I grew up in the South, where tornados are a regular threat!
Rebecca says:
October 23, 2012 at 7:27 am (UTC -7)
I lived in Oklahoma growing up , and i did notice the rotation yesterday as I live off S 38th. So I just kept my eyes on it for a bit, my kids have already been instructed as to what to do and where in the house to go if the need should ever arise. But yes that was in fact severe rotation.
ihateobamatheracist says:
October 23, 2012 at 9:16 am (UTC -7)
it hit my house hard we were watching it and thinking wow
Brianna says:
October 23, 2012 at 12:55 pm (UTC -7)
I live on South 44th and drove past the damage on the way to class this morning. I was wondering what caused it. My mom half-jokingly said that maybe it was a tornado at the time, but when I got home about an hour ago (after walking past the area again and taking photos) she told me she had talked to a couple members of the clean up crew over there after dropping me off at the UO and how accurate the tornado idea turned out to be is really unsettling, but also kind of amazing given how such a small area was effected. I wish I could’ve at least seen the funnel if there was one. Tornadoes scare the crap out of me, but I’m also fascinated by the oddness of the damage from this one.
Aaron says:
October 28, 2012 at 6:58 pm (UTC -7)
Yeah I live on 42nd and it seemed like it landed on our house it blew out our window, ripped up a ton of trees in our backyard, and ripped the roof off of the Mt. Vernon school across the street. It was a crazy day.