Boise (670 KBOI News) – The National Weather Service is sending a team to the area between Mountain Home and Glenn’s Ferry today, to determine if a tornado actually did touch down Sunday.

Meteorologist Dave Groenert says it’s important to know the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning.

“A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for thunderstorms to develop that could produce tornadoes,” said Groenert.  “A warning means  the event is actually occurring.  So, either something on our radar indicated there was a tornado, or someone has spotted a tornado.”

Severe thunderstorms can produce powerful straight-line winds, called microbursts, which can be confused with tornadoes, so the Weather Service usually sends out a survey team after powerful storms hit.

Groenert says if it does turn out that Sunday’s storm was indeed a tornado, it’ll be only the third this year.

— Jay Howell, 670 KBOI News