a sleeve or funnel tens or hundreds of metres in diameter.

The first mention of a tornado in Russia dates from 1406. The Trinity Chronicle reports that near Nizhny Novgorod a “most terrible whirlwind” lifted a harnessed cart together with the horse and a man into the air and carried them so far that they “became invisible”. The next day the cart and the dead horse were found hanging in a tree on the other side of the Volga, while the man went missing.

See also