VIDEOS of cars being shoved around by fierce winds at a toll plaza in Kota Damansara have since gone viral on social media.
Many users were quick to call the Tuesday evening storm a mini tornado.
Did a landspout hit Kota Damansara?
Verdict:
TRUE
A landspout, or mini tornado, struck the Damansara area on Tuesday evening (Oct 13), according to the Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia).
The storm hit during the evening rush hour.
MetMalaysia director-general Dr Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip told Bernama that the landspout was caused by active thunderstorm clouds known as cumulonimbus.
He said a tornado is a fast-rotating column of air formed by wind shear and updrafts as thunderstorm clouds develop.
Tornadoes in Malaysia occur only on a relatively small scale, measuring less than 10 metres and lasting for a very short time, he said.
"This makes their formation difficult to detect by radar and weather satellites, but MetMalaysia had issued a thunderstorm warning for districts in Selangor at 5.30 pm on Oct 13," said Mohd Hisham.
One of the viral videos shows a blue car being pushed by strong winds at a toll plaza before colliding with another vehicle in the next lane.
In another clip, strong winds appear to lift the rear end of a vehicle off the ground as traffic waits at the toll plaza.
Closer dashcam footage has also surfaced online, offering a different view of the incident.
Other clips appear to show a car being pushed across a residential parking area while nearby trees bend and debris swirls in the wind.
Landspouts, which are tornadoes over land, and waterspouts over the sea occur frequently during the monsoon transition phase from March to May and from September to October, Mohd Hisham added.
He said the phenomenon is caused by unstable, humid atmospheric conditions, along with weak winds blowing from multiple directions.
