ROTATING clouds gathering over the Carmarthenshire left shocked residents thinking they were in the middle of a tornado.
People living in the Amman and Gwendraeth valleys were surprised to spot the odd-shaped cloud.
Carmarthenshire Council leader Kevin Madge, who spotted what looked like the beginning of a tornado over the area, said he was shocked by what he saw.
"I was in Cross Hands when I saw it — it was very unusual and very big and looked like it was over the Amman Valley area.
"I still don't really know what it was, but it looked like the kind of pictures you see at the start of storms in America, so I took a picture on my phone. I've never seen anything like it before."
Mr Madge said he sent the image to BBC weatherman Derek Brockway who mentioned it on the news.
Other residents described the weather as dark, windy and raining before spotting the strange cloud.
The "tornado" was spotted by people living in Ammanford, Llandybie, Tumble and Cross Hands at around 4.15pm on Wednesday. May Broadhurst, aged 18, from Ammanford, said she heard about the "tornado" on Facebook.
"We saw a really dark cloud, the sky was really black. As we came up the arcade all we could see was a black cloud and then it started to rain really, really heavily."
Several people also posted their own pictures and comments of surprise on Twitter.
DUST909 @Markus909 tweeted: "Just saw a freak tornado trying to form in the skies above Ammanford. Had proper rotation to it... - Mental!"
Christian Lovatt @chrislovatt18 said: "Right, I'm not gonna lie, I saw a tornado forming over Ammanford!"
Sammy Davies, assistant pastor at Ammanford Evangelical Church, described pictures he saw on Twitter as "mad".
The strange sighting has now been identified as a funnel cloud and not a tornado.
The cloud, which is shaped like a funnel, contains condensed water droplets and has a rotating column of wind.
But unlike tornadoes, funnel clouds do not touch the ground and do not create any damage or destruction.
If a funnel cloud touches the ground it becomes a tornado.
