„You have probably seen photos and videos of trees that were overturned or completely broken in half, but this is what the storm looked like as it moved through a narrow area causing significant damage. Watch for at least a minute and listen to how it sounds,“ he writes on his Facebook page “Weather and Climate in Lithuania”.
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G. Valaika shared a video by Andrius Stanynas from the squall-damaged village of Veršiai near Leipalingis. The home security camera recorded the powerful storm on Thursday from 19:10 to 19:13.
G. Valaika writes that he noticed many people confuse a tornado with a squall.
„Know this, there was no tornado. Both according to available data and all visual material, it is very clear that it was a squall. Gusts reached at least 20-23 m/s (heavy rain with strong wind looks like what is seen in the video).
The main signs of a squall – it lasts up to several minutes (longer than a tornado), causes damage over a larger area, knocks down trees and other objects quite neatly in one direction (due to one-directional wind). Meanwhile, a tornado has a funnel and moves through a much narrower area (damage width is up to a few hundred meters), twists trees, throws them in all directions, etc.,” he writes.
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G. Valaika states that overall Lithuania avoided a worse scenario, which was realistic.
„Theoretical possibilities included an even stronger storm. Still, we did not get as strong as we could have. There could have been 4-5 cm hailstones (instead of 1-1.5 cm), the squall could have covered an even larger part of the country, but it did not. There could have been more rain, but heavier rain fell only locally. There could have been more lightning strikes. Looking positively, Southern Lithuania was quite lucky,“ he writes.
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