Funnel cloud do not become tornadoes. Also, a tornado does not necessarily need to have an associated condensation funnel. If strong cyclonic winds are occurring at the surface (and connected to a cloud base, regardless of condensation), then the feature is a tornado. Some tornadoes may appear only as a debris swirl, with no obvious funnel cloud extending below the rotating cloud base. In cloud nomenclature, any funnel- or inverted-funnel-shaped cloud descending from cumulus or cumulonimbus clouds is technically described as an accessory feature called "tuba". The terms "tuba" and "funnel cloud" are nearly but not exactly synonymous; a wall cloud, for
Mushroom cloud stabilization altitude. Significantly smaller fireballs produce clouds with buoyancy-governed ascent. After reaching the tropopause, the bottom of the region of strong static stability, the cloud tends to slow its ascent and spread out. If it contains sufficient energy, the central part of it may continue rising up into the stratosphere as an analog of a standard thunderstorm. A mass of air ascending from the troposphere to the stratosphere leads to the formation of acoustic gravity waves, virtually identical to those created by intense stratosphere-penetrating thunderstorms. Smaller-scale explosions penetrating the tropopause generate waves of higher frequency, classified as infrasound. The explosion