ATLANTA (WXIA) -- Ever heard of a tornado that spins in the opposite direction?
Tornadoes usually spin in a counterclockwise direction. A storm survey of an EF-0 tornado that hit Eastman, Georgia Wednesday night showed that the tornado was actually spinning in a "clockwise" motion. That is called an "anticyclonic tornado."
"Our survey team confirmed an EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 80 mph touched down in the south part of Eastman at 1150 pm EDT on May 14th and traveled north approximately 1.75 miles through town. As illustrated below, the storm exhibited anticyclonic (clockwise) rotation, a very rare phenomenon since the vast majority of tornadoes rotate cyclonically (counter-clockwise)," said National Weather Service forecasters in a post on their Facebook page.
11Alive Meteorologist Chris Holcomb also says this is a rare event.
"This might happen one out of every 1,000 tornadoes," he said. "This type of rotation is usually away from stronger rotation within a storm in the rear flank of the rotating system. These anticyclonic rotations are usually weak and don't last long."
