Hi Dave,
<snip>
Waterspouts, landspout, coldies (as in tornadoes not cbs), mesocyclonic tornado, flanking line tornado etc etc are all tornadoes, by definition. They are, potentially, distinguished, by the different dynamical processes from which they result. To that end, a landspout, as I noted above, is an example of what are termed non-mesocyclonic tornadoes -- tornadoes nonetheless. Remember this is taxonomy; attempting to best categorise a natural continuum -- hence it is subjective.
actually that makes for the easiest understanding I have so far read thanks
I guess, when out chasing and observing these events,
we need to pay close attention to what is happening in the clouds above the funnel so that we can classify the "tornado" correctly.
ie ...land(water) spout or classic tornado.
therefore .... using those guidelines .... was there enuf info available to correctly classify the Sydney 'tornado' of a couple of months ago ?
was there an associated meso visible on any radar images ?
cheers
Dave N