Severe weather Monday afternoon had some storm watchers seeing funnel clouds where there were none and led to only minor problems locally.

A spotter reportedly saw a tornado near highways 45 and 20, north of Union Grove, around 3:50 p.m. But the National Weather Service is doubting that.

“After discussions with the spotter, who was looking southwest toward Eagle Lake, and comparing his accounts to the radar imagery at that time, we will be calling it a ‘gust-nado’ rather than a tornado,” the National Weather Service office in Sulivan reported late Monday.

At the time, a strong gust front was moving through the area. Dust kicked up by the gust front appeared to swirl near the ground, causing the false report, according to weather officials.

“This weak circulation was not connected to the parent thunderstorms and, based on radar at the time, tornado formation was not expected,” they said.

The weather service defines a “gust-nado” as a small, usually weak whirlwind, which forms as an eddy in thunderstorm outflows. It does not connect with any cloud base rotation and is not a tornado. Instead, it is classified as a “thunderstorm wind event.”

The highest wind gusts reported during the storm were 54 mph at 2:59 p.m. in Whitewater, where lots of wind-related tree damage was reported, according to the National Weather Service. Hail as large as 1.5 inches was reported via amateur radio in the Mukwonago area at 3:47 p.m.

The highest wind gust reported at the Kenosha Airport was 48 mph at 4:25 p.m.

There were scattered reports of power outages and wind-related damage, including a tree blown down at the intersection of 13th Avenue and 57th Street, but local emergency and law enforcement officials reported no weather-related calls during the height of the afternoon storm.

However, about 2,000 We Energies customers lost power briefly in the Kenosha area during a storm early Monday morning.

The outages began around 4 a.m., according to We Energies spokeswoman Irissol Arce, with most lasting only a few minutes. However, they continued throughout the morning.