A mini 'tornado' was spotted swirling through the skies of Cheshire today (Thursday, August 9).
The twister-like event was caught in the clouds above Macclesfield, Poynton and Bollington at around lunchtime.
Our sister paper Manchester Evening News reports that resident Jennie Lewis snapped the weather phenomenon from her window in Higher Poynton at around 12.15pm.
Jennie, 48, said: “I was in my kitchen having an early lunch and it started raining.
“We had a really heavy downpour and then I saw this unusual cloud forming. I ran upstairs to grab my camera and by then you could see the rain and cloud twisting.
“It looked like something out of a film. The cloud was getting longer but it eventually dissipated.
“I’ve always been interested in the weather and this was a really unusual sight.”
Other witnesses said the twister disappeared before it touched the ground.
No damage has been reported to the police, a spokesman for Cheshire Constabulary said.
The Met Office only define a cloud as a tornado if it touches the ground.
It is possible the sight was a funnel cloud, which is the same as a tornado - it just doesn’t reach the earth.
Other people reported seeing the cloud formation in parts of Stockport.
A tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air that reaches from the base of a storm cloud to the ground. They happen in unsettled weather conditions, usually as part of thunderstorms.
At the point a funnel cloud reaches the earth’s surface it becomes a tornado, or if it reaches a body of water it becomes a waterspout.
