According to the US National Weather Service Alaska, a cumulonimbus cloud produced an ominous-looking funnel cloud, but not quite a tornado, over the over the upper Cook Inlet just south of Anchorage on July 9.
Although Alaska is the least tornado-prone state in the country, tornadoes have been known to appear on occasion.
In 2005 one touched down in the mountainous area around Unga Island, near the southwestern community of Sand Point, at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. According to a 2005 Associated Press article, Elders in the area said it was the first time they had witnessed such an event.
Tornadoes spring up wherever the weather ingredients are most opportune. Despite the fact the phenomenon is rare in Alaska, funnel clouds such as this one are a bit more common.
Of the funnel that formed over Cook Inlet this week, The Weather Service says: