Dallas, TEXAS — As highly effective winter climate continues to influence Texas and far of the USA, residents of the Dallas space skilled an uncommon climate phenomenon on Sunday.
Winter Storm Crusingthat introduced snow, sleet, ice and bitter chilly to a lot of the central and jap U.S. stays in impact in a number of states, prompting warnings, disrupted journey and unsafe circumstances.
Meteorologists report the storm system has delivered a mixture of wintry precipitation throughout Texas, together with measurable snow and sleet in North Texas, with dangerously low wind chills and protracted excessive chilly by Monday.
In quite a lot of uncommon occasions for the area, snow tornadoes have been captured on video and shared by Dallas, Texas, TV on X (previously Twitter)with a rotating snow column close to Dallas.
The movies have sparked widespread curiosity amongst meteorologists and the general public. The phenomenon happens as a vertical, vortex-like construction of snow and wind, which stands out from typical winter storm patterns.
(Supply: social submit DallasTexasTV)
Why it occurred
Snow tornadoes – generally informally referred to as ‘snownadoes’ or snow funnels – can type when robust winds blow over unfastened snow on the bottom underneath particular atmospheric circumstances.
These vortices are usually weaker and smaller than conventional tornadoes related to extreme thunderstorms, however they will seem when a mix of robust wind shear, turbulent air and really chilly floor circumstances trigger swirling columns of air to elevate snow right into a rotating column.
Within the case of the Dallas space on Sunday: extraordinarily chilly temperatures mixed with wind gusts from Winter Storm Fern offered the required elements for the event of localized snow swirls. Sturdy stress gradients inside the storm system induced elevated floor wind speeds, which interacted with plentiful unfastened snow to create the rotating snow column seen within the video.
Snow tornadoes in context
Snow tornadoes are uncommon in comparison with the extra widespread extreme thunderstorms and tornadoes that happen in hotter seasons. They’re sometimes short-lived and happen underneath circumstances that contain crossing robust winds and snow-covered terrain.
Just a few current occurrences of comparable phenomena in the USA embody:
- Throughout an outbreak within the Arctic, a snow twister was reported within the Dakotas early January 2026, the place robust winds interacting with deep snow produced quick, rotating columns of snow noticed by native storm spotters.
- A snow funnel was documented in a northern Plains state throughout a winter system in December 2025when gusty winds and frigid air mixed to supply a visual snow swirl, just like what was seen close to Dallas.
Snow tornadoes differ essentially from conventional tornadoes: the latter are violently rotating columns of air that type throughout extreme thunderstorms and may trigger excessive injury, whereas snow tornadoes usually encompass wind and snow with out the deep convective storm construction mandatory for vital rotational depth.