Australia Weather News

A funnel cloud has been spotted over Eynesbury, west of Melbourne, but the weather bureau says they do not touch the ground like a tornado and are usually not destructive.

A number of photos surfaced on social media of a funnel cloud near Eynesbury and Melton, when a band of heavy rain passed through the area around midday.

Catharine Kennedy-Lamplough took a photo of the cloud when she was out in a paddock working with horses.

"I looked over and it was just this long oddly shaped funnel and you could actually see the clouds twirling on the inside," she told 774 ABC Melbourne.

Asked if she was frightened, she said: "I left the agistment pretty fast."

"It was there for a couple of minutes. I didn't see it form," she said.

"I saw the very end of it and it was very interesting to watch the clouds going around and as it started to almost dissolve into the bigger clouds around it."

The Victorian Storm Chasers Facebook page said it had received numerous shots of the cloud and of another one near Traralgon, in eastern Victoria.

But in a post on Twitter, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said there was no reason for concern because funnel clouds were not usually destructive.

They are "a visible vortex" attached to a cloud but do not touch the ground.

Funnel clouds are very short-lived and quickly decay after formation if they are not associated with tornadoes, the BoM said.

Tornadoes are relatively rare but can happen with almost any severe thunderstorm.

There are between 10 and 20 annual sightings of tornadoes and most are reported by members of the public.