Is that a tornado? The weather service says it’s a tropical funnel cloud.

After Monday’s deluge, the National Weather Service said tropical funnel clouds are possible.

Responding to a photo that shows a possible funnel cloud forming in Peoria, Texas, the NWS said on Twitter that the weather event was possible Tuesday.

Tropical funnels are basically the spin in the atmosphere, or vorticity, that starts near the ground and twists up — spinning faster as it stretches upward. It’s spinning motion forms a cloud much like a tornado, said David Bonnette, meteorologist at the NWS Fort Worth office.

The difference is that a tornado is developed from super cell thunderstorms from above with its spin twisting towards the ground, Bonnette said.

For example, when an ice skater has their arms out and then pulls them closer in they spin faster and that’s essentially how the tropical funnel cloud develops, he said. If there is a little bit of spin in the atmosphere, rising air can move over the top of it and stretch it upward causing a funnel at the bottom of a cloud.

Texans do not have much to worry about with tropical funnels since they rarely touchdown. Most of the time the weather event stays up in the clouds, but on occasion when they do touch the ground, they last for around five minutes or so, Bonnette said.

Typically, when a tropical funnel hits the ground it will generate wind speeds of between 40 and 70 mph, which is enough to knock down a few tree limbs, Bonnette said.

Tropical funnel clouds are more frequently found in south Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, due to the tropical moisture there. But with the humidity in North Texas this week, a perfect storm of factors makes the phenomenon more likely to manifest, Bonnette said.

However, the possibility of the weather event happening has more to do with the low pressure system than the rain showers.