June 14, 2025    

It was another open weekend, so I along with my brother Kyle, took a drive to Southeast Missouri to look for snakes and other wildlife.  The forecast for the day in Southeast Missouri called for spotty, general Thunderstorms.  I was unaware about the potential for Cold Air Funnels until Kyle got a weather notification on his phone as we were driving toward our wildlife target.

In the early evening as we were driving between wildlife viewing locations on eastbound Highway 60 between Essex, Missouri and Sikeston, Missouri, I just happened to look to my north on a very small cell and saw a funnel cloud dangling underneath the cumulus cloud.  Shocked about having another déjà vu moment similar to last weekend, we both quickly got our cameras on it. The funnel was about halfway to the ground with the base unfortunately obstructed by trees.

We continued driving east on Highway 60 for a couple minutes in order to get closer. We wanted to verify if there was a ground circulation.  I finally pulled off on a dirt road and we watched. At one point, as the funnel begin to shrink, we saw dirt associated with a ground circulation rise above the tree line. 

We are not sure how long the funnel actually made contact with the ground as the view of the base was still blocked by trees.  The funnel eventually dissipated after spinning for 7 or 8 minutes from the time we first made visual contact with it.

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It was a surprise to get a Cold Air Funnel and even more of a surprise to have it briefly turn into a Land Spout Tornado as it pulled dust up as it made ground contact.   Albeit a different kind of Tornado than usual, scoring this unplanned tornado event for the second weekend in a row was certainly a real treat!