A landspout is technically a tornado, but we think of it more as a tornado cousin. A tornado is defined as a rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface and the cloud base, and by that definition, a landspout (or a waterspout) is a tornado. However, they are not mesocyclone tornadoes. Instead of forming from a deep meso within a thunderstorm and extending to the ground, they form at the surface and the vorticity tube is stretched up towards the cloud base. These are different that “dust devils” which are not connected to the cloud base.
