Has the term 'landspout' got you baffled? We break down the tornado-like phenomenon that ripped through KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on Tuesday afternoon.

Strong, damaging winds that resembled a tornado tore through Inanda and Phoenix, north of Durban, on Tuesday afternoon. After evaluating video footage of the phenomenon, the South African Weather Service (Saws) determined that the wind phenomenon that hit the area was a "landspout".

But Wayne Venter, a forecaster at Saws, said tornadoes and landspouts are essentially the same thing.

"The only difference is in how they dynamically form and what the atmospheric processes look like," he said.

MEDIA RELEASE: Landspout event in the Inanda and Phoenix area of KwaZulu-Natal on 27 June 2023 pic.twitter.com/ogmYj9odR3-- SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) June 28, 2023

Several parts of KwaZulu-Natal were severely affected by heavy rainfall which led to localised flooding on Tuesday as a result of a cut-off low system -- a very fierce low-pressure system that develops in the upper air and extends down to the surface. A cut-off low caused the heavy rains which led to devastating flooding in the province in April 2022.

The storm was still raging on Tuesday afternoon when video footage and photographs began circulating on social media showing debris, including corrugated iron sheets, doors, windows and planks of wood flying overhead in Inanda and...