It looks more like a tuba, i.e. a tornado that does not touch the ground. The fire brigade of the Ardèche region has not yet been called to the area.

According to several eyewitnesses who posted photos on social networks, a tornado was observed in full formation in the department of Ardèche, south-west France, around midday on Thursday. It would have looked more like a tuba that did not touch the ground. According to the local public broadcaster France Bleu Drôme Ardèche, the meteorological phenomenon was recorded near the village of Sarras, between Annonay and Tournon.

The Ardèche fire brigade has not yet been deployed in the area. No material damage or injuries have been reported. As of this morning, the probability of thunderstorms in this department is very high. According to meteorologists, tornadoes are usually short-lived and localised, making them almost impossible to predict.

Tornadoes are rare, but not infrequent. “We count about 30 a year in the country,” Emmanuel Wesolek, president of Keraunos, the French observatory for tornadoes and severe storms, told the newspaper Le Parisien. There are probably “about 50” if we include “those that escape us because they occur in uninhabited areas or are too weak”, he added. “Compared to the number of storms, it’s a negligible number.”

The frequency is higher in summer because of storms, and more than a third occur between June and August. Autumn is the second most frequent period for tornadoes: almost one in three. Tubas can be very short-lived (a few tens of minutes), while tornadoes can develop and spread in a matter of hours.