SEKINCHAN is best known for its lush paddy fields, a patchwork of green that draws visitors and photographers from across the country.
Over the weekend, those same fields became the backdrop for something far more dramatic caught on camera by local residents.
Did a land spout really hit Sekinchan?
Verdict:
TRUE
A land spout is believed to have swept through a paddy field area at Jalan Tali Air 4 in Sekinchan in Selangor on Saturday (July 11) morning.
Selangor Tourism and Local Government executive councillor Datuk Ng Suee Lim said that based on preliminary information, the incident lasted between three and four minutes but did not cause any injuries or damage.
"The incident happened at 11.40am in the middle of the paddy fields and near the Sekinchan Terminal.
"We are grateful that no damage occurred," said Ng, who is also the Sekinchan assemblyman, when contacted.
Earlier, a 57-second video showing the land spout in the middle of the paddy field, believed to have been recorded by residents around Jalan Tali Air 4, went viral on social media.
So what exactly is a land spout, and how does it differ from the tornadoes, waterspouts and whirlwinds that people often confuse it with?
A land spout is technically a type of tornado, but a much weaker and shorter-lived one than the tornadoes most people picture. The key difference lies in how it forms.
A classic tornado is born from a supercell thunderstorm, developing from a rotating column of air high up in the storm called a mesocyclone, and works its way downward until it touches the ground.
A land spout, by contrast, forms from the ground up. It develops when spinning air near the surface is stretched upward into a growing cloud, without any of the powerful storm-scale rotation that drives a true tornado.
This makes land spouts generally narrower, weaker and far briefer, often lasting just a few minutes, exactly as the Sekinchan event did.
A waterspout is essentially the same phenomenon as a land spout, but occurring over water rather than land. The two share a nearly identical formation process, which is why a land spout was originally named for looking like a waterspout that had wandered over land.
A whirlwind is a broader, more general term for any rotating column of air. The most familiar example is the dust devil, a small swirl of wind that kicks up dust on a hot, dry day. Unlike land spouts, dust devils are not connected to any cloud above and form purely from heat rising off the ground on a clear day, which makes them the weakest of the lot.
In short, what Sekinchan experienced was a brief, ground-formed vortex too weak and short-lived to cause the kind of devastation associated with the tornadoes seen in other parts of the world, which is why it passed through the paddy fields without leaving damage behind.
Sources:
1. https://bernama.com/en/
2. https://www.weather.gov/
3. https://skybrary.aero/
