Charlotte man ‘caught off guard’ while recording possible funnel cloud

CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte man captured video of what appears to be a funnel cloud in the Steele Creek area Thursday morning. It happened while Mecklenburg County was under a tornado warning.

Jacob Sprankle posted the video of the swirling clouds to social media. It was taken from an apartment complex across from the Charlotte Premium Outlets.

Channel 9′s Eli Brand spoke with Sprankle, who said he was shocked to see it.

“The hurricane is coming later today and tomorrow, so I knew that bad weather. But I didn’t expect tornadoes in this area at this hour,” he said. “It was quite unexpected. I got the warning on my phone and was completely caught off guard.”

He said he got the tornado warning around 10 a.m., walked outside, and saw what looked like a funnel cloud spinning around. It looks like it was overhead some trees, so he tried to zoom in.

Sprankle said he’s preparing for when Hurricane Helene actually arrives.

“Yeah, definitely certain not to let my guard down now because there’s hardly any warning at all,” he said. “I think it’s hard to predict with these kinds of tornadoes that are spinning up. So just keeping my eye on the radar, seeing what’s happening, making sure I have alerts on my phone, then getting prepared for the rest of the rain and winds when the storm really comes through.”

Sprankle even admitted that he probably did the wrong thing when you get a tornado warning, and he’s right.

Now is the time to gather supplies and make a plan, especially for where in your house you’re going to hunker down during a severe weather warning.

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