A number of videos have gone viral lately, claiming that "twisters" have hit Ipoh, Perak in the peninsula and Pitas in Sabah, leaving locals cowering in fear. Is this true?
Verdict:
PARTIALLY TRUE
Video evidence shows that "twisters" did emerge in Ipoh and Pitas. However, the question is if they can be defined as tornadoes, cyclones or "twisters" as they are known in the United States.
The classic tornado or twister is formed by a rotating supercell thunderstorm that starts in the clouds and reaches down to the ground. These rarely – if ever – occur in Malaysia and can become immensely powerful.
Landspouts, however, are formed when rotating winds form a column on the ground surface which then reach upwards.
The Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) says that the weather phenomena that occurred over Ipoh and Pitas, were actually landspouts (when it occurs over land) or waterspouts (over a body of water), but both refer to the same thing.
MetMalaysia Centre for Meteorological Instrumentation and Atmospheric Science senior director Ambun Dindang said waterspouts or landsprouts tend to strike coastal areas.
Usually, weather conditions that lead to these also have the presence of cumulonimbus clouds.
Ambun said large cumulonimbus clouds lead to strong convection that forms funnel clouds at the base of the cloud, which in turn causes a strong wind shear to form.
"This is what happened in Perak. We detected large cumulonimbus clouds in the Kinta area that caused landspouts to hit.
Ambun added that it was rather challenging for MetMalaysia to forecast landspouts (and waterspouts) as they tend to occur on a smaller scale and have short lifespans of an hour at the most.
He advised the public to seek refuge if one occurs close by.
References:
1) https://weather.com/storms/
2) https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/
3) https://kdvr.com/news/what-is-
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