Funnel cloud
Also called funnel, tuba, tornado funnel
Station model. What an observer recorded, not a weather-app forecast.
Present weather and station modelsFunnel cloud meaning
A funnel-cloud symbol, in observing practice, means a funnel was reported. It is not the Unicode tornado, and it is not a forecast thunder icon.
At a glance
- System
- Present-weather observation
- Used for
- A reported funnel
- Not the same as
- The tornado character or a thunder icon
An observing category for a funnel. Not a tornado emoji, and not a thunderstorm icon by itself.
The name. A funnel cloud is a rotating column that has not been reported as reaching the ground. The tornado character is a different system.
Where it comes from
Present-weather codes include violent convective events, and a funnel is among the things an observer is asked to report. This cabinet does not assign the drawing to a numbered 4677 glyph. The picture is a cloud with a taper that does not meet the ground line, so a reader can tell it from a forecast thundercloud and from the tornado character. A funnel that reaches the surface is reported as a tornado. The character U+1F32A is neither report.
The line drawing is original to this cabinet. It is not an agency logo, a vendor icon, or the emoji for the same idea.
Weather
What it means
Someone saw a funnel. The page does not decide, from the icon alone, whether debris was on the ground. Forecast thunderstorm icons say thunder is expected. They do not say a funnel is on the ground. If you are looking at a warning polygon, you are in yet another graphic, and this mark is not that polygon.
Questions
What is a funnel cloud symbol?
It stands for a reported funnel in the observing system. The drawing here does not touch the ground, so it is not pretending to be a finished tornado report or a tornado emoji.
Is the tornado emoji the official tornado symbol?
No. The emoji is Unicode. A funnel or tornado report belongs to weather observation. A forecast thunder icon belongs to the forecast.
Near this
- ThunderstormA forecast icon for thunder and lightning. Not a decorative bolt, and not ordinary rain.
- Tornado characterU+1F32A TORNADO. A character. Not a funnel-cloud report and not a warning polygon.
- Present weatherThe sign plotted beside a station when weather is occurring. Not a forecast icon, and not all one hundred codes.
- Dust stormDust storm or sandstorm as weather that is happening. Not the milder dust forecast, and not haze.
Sources
Named when the entry depends on a text, a date, or a standard. Catalog numbers are not invented.
Your margin
Private. It stays in this browser and never joins the canon.
symbol.wiki, edited as Sigilla. Last reviewed 18 October 2026. A reading of public tradition, not a ruling.