Tornado touches down at Chicago's Midway airport

CHICAGO, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A tornado briefly touched down Wednesday near Chicago's Midway International Airport, the first tornado in the city in 10 years, the National Weather Service said.

The landspout tornado was spotted by a Federal Aviation Administration observer at the airport just before 4 p.m. and lasted about 10 minutes. No injuries and no serious damage were reported.

The tornado was the first in Chicago since September 2006 when an EF0 struck the campus of Loyola University.

Formed by a few cumulus clouds along the lake breeze boundary, the landspout occurred without a thunderstorm or rain.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Severe Storms Laboratory defines landspout tornadoes as a narrow, rope-like condensation funnel that forms while the thunderstorm cloud is still growing and without a rotating updraft. The spinning motion instead forms near the ground.

Landspouts are typically short in duration and unlikely to do much damage.