Snow swirls in Enon: Storm Center 7 explains

ENON — It can make for a fun and awesome sight to see leaves swirling around in the fall or snow swirling around in the winter.

It’s not a whirlwind or mini tornado, but it does have a name, Storm Center 7 Meteorologist Dontae Jones said.

The term that meteorologists use for these swirling masses of air is an eddy.

Eddies are pockets of turbulent air. They form when air is moving over and around objects and force the air to change direction quickly, Jones said.

Large-scale eddies can form when air is moving over buildings or hills, but they can’t always be seen.

Small-scale eddies, however, can make for some interesting phenomena.