UPDATE: The National Weather Service in Melbourne has preliminarily determined that the weather event was a “Gustnado” that is an official meteorological term for “a small whirlwind which is not a tornado.”

According to NWS, a gustnado is a small, whirlwind which forms as an eddy in thunderstorm outflows. They do not connect with any cloud-base rotation and are not tornadoes. Since their origin is associated with cumuliform clouds, gustnadoes will be classified as Thunderstorm / Wind events. Like dust devils, some stronger gustnadoes can cause damage.