MOTORISTS travelling near Devizes on Monday evening were astonished to see what looked like a tornado in the skies above them.

In fact the phenomenon was a funnel cloud, a long thin cloud extending from the sky towards the ground.

The fact that the cloud did not touch the ground means it was not a tornado.

Those that saw it said it was scary and looked like something out of a movie.

Gazette sub-editor Jo Bayne saw it while she was driving between Bromham and Melksham at around 5.30pm.

She said: "I saw a dark finger of cloud hanging below dark cloud. It wasn't a normal cloud and I thought it was odd. It looked like pictures I have seen of tornados. I thought it was either a tornado or a smoke trail."

The funnel cloud was hundreds of feet high and lasted up to 20 minutes, much longer than the average two minutes.

There were no reports of damage to property while the funnel cloud was overhead. Several similar formations were reported over Wiltshire and Bristol and there was a tornado seen towards the south coast.

The funnel cloud came a week after a tornado hit Birmingham, damaging buildings and uprooting trees.

Writing on the BBC Wiltshire website BBC West weather forecaster Richard Angwin said: "Funnel clouds are an occasional sight across Wiltshire. The valleys and hills and the prevailing southwesterly winds appear to encourage their formation. Even on a fine day it can be worth keeping an eye on the cloud. You never know when the next funnel cloud may appear. A funnel cloud owes its formation to the same processes as a tornado, but it is nowhere near as extreme."

Photographs of the cloud can be viewed on www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire.