- Joshua Timothy photographed waterspouts near the Great Salt Lake on a calm day.
- Utah experienced unusual weather with waterspouts and a tornado in April.
- Meteorologist Devan Masciulli emphasized documenting weather events to improve prediction models.
NORTH SALT LAKE — Photographer Joshua Timothy said it was a calm, gray day Sunday as he scouted out locations for spring pictures near Tunnel Springs Park.
As he looked west toward the Great Salt Lake, however, he spotted something in the clouds that stunned him.
"You just had the two funnels coming down, just spread out a little bit," Timothy said. "I hurried and took some pictures of them. I texted my friend that works at the (National) Weather Service, and I said, 'Hey, I think these are funnel clouds.' And sure enough, he said, 'Yeah, I think they might be, so let me send them to my people over at the office, and we're going to look into it.' So, yeah, next morning I get the message on social media that they confirmed they were two waterspouts."
From those waterspouts to a funnel cloud near Fillmore to a small tornado near the Rich County-Cache County line, Utah has seen more than its share of wild weather in April.
While a meteorologist said Tuesday it is unusual to have several of these events in such a short timeframe in this state, what makes it more peculiar is that they happened without a severe weather system driving them.
"It's definitely like a 'Hmmm, what's going on, why is our atmosphere so unsettled right now?'" KSL meteorologist Devan Masciulli said. "It is kind of fascinating to see how we can get that here, and it's not the Midwest."
Masciulli said, unlike tornadic events in the Midwest, sometimes colder storms in Utah, on top of warmer air from a stretch of warm weather, can produce rotation and "cold air funnels."
"A cold air funnel is a weak, kind of long and skinny funnel cloud," she explained. "That cold air aloft is what can lead to rotation and funnel clouds, and it's just more likely to happen in the spring season and the fall season, whereas in the summertime there are daytime thunderstorms that bubble up and then those can lead to funnel clouds or tornadoes or land spouts, just in a different way."
Masciulli said these recent cases underscored the importance of reporting and documenting the weather events for everything from analysis to improving prediction models in the future.
She said gaps in radar coverage make identifying every single event like these difficult.
"It's so hard sometimes for us to catch it on radar when it's happening, because they don't last long, so it's nice that we can have that verification," Masciulli explained. "Given that we have more eyes on the ground and, you know, people are able to record and show us when it's happening, it actually allows us to verify that a lot faster and more frequently compared to the past."
Masciulli urged people who spot these weather events to continue to document and report them, while avoiding getting into harm's way to do so.
Timothy said he was just grateful to be able to do his part over the weekend.
"It was pretty cool because we don't get that kind of weather all the time, and just to be able to see it — it was in a safe spot over the lake," Timothy said. "It's just a good opportunity to enjoy what this earth has for us."
