OMIGOSH! Downtown Buffalo had unpredicted EF1 tornado today

[wnylib]

15. I learned about the initial invisibility of the funnels back in 1985

when a supercell storm out of eastern Ohio spawned 40+ tornadoes in a 10 hour period. They ranged from F0 to F5 and from northeastern Ohio into NW PA. From there, the tornado formation path split. Part went east into central PA and part went north into western NY and southern Ontario, Canada.

Since I'm originally from NW PA, a few days after the storms I drove to the area that was hit. I spoke with a woman in a small town there who watched a funnel form and waited until it was visible to get photos of it. She explained to me how they become visible at ground level. The clouds that they come out of are dark, so you can see the clouds swirling and the top of the tornado forming, but the mid section below that and down to the ground is swirling air that you can't see. You can see some debris swirling around, but the whole funnel becomes visible from top to bottom after the lower section sucks up dirt and smaller debris into the funnel.

She got so fascinated watching the process from her porch that she forgot about taking shelter. Her brother grabbed her arm and took her inside to their basement. When they came out, the house was gone.