Waterspout Stories
 

Danny got this idea moving in his "Wind Blows" thread. Anyway, many of us that have spent time in in waterspout latitudes have a few stories accumulated over the years. So, let's hear 'em!

I'll start off ...

We were anchored on the Coffins Patch, a patch reef off Duck Key in the central Florida Keys about eight years ago. It was a sunny day, with the odd cloud floating by.

http://keysweb.info/images/fknms_map.gif

I had a couple of moms and a bunch of kids in the water snorkeling or just swimming around. I was parked on the safety line down current of the boat doing four year old retrieval. They would just keep floating down stream in life jackets.

All of the sudden I noticed a half a dozen boats up'ing anchor, powering up and ripping away at high speed in all directions. Hmmm, started looking around and off to the WSW, I saw something like this:

http://www.gotouring.com/razzledazzl.../spout-600.jpg
From: http://www.gotouring.com/razzledazzl...lphoto044.html

It was about 2000 ft. high, about 80 ft. in diameter at the base and was a lot closer than the one shown above, perhaps 1000 ft. away. It was moving towards us, and you could see the funky "vanes" orbiting around the base such as shown in the image below.

http://www.vastormphoto.com/MyPictur...7_filtered.jpg
From: http://www.vastormphoto.com

Anyway, it was moving towards us fairly quickly. I had just managed to hand the last four year old aboard and shouted to one of the moms to fire up the outboard as I climbed aboard and ran forward to deal with the hook. I thought about abandoning it but was able to up anchor rapidly and get out of Dodge fast. If the waterspout hadn't changed course it would have run over the top of us.

I guess you get wet in a waterspout and some light stuff might get picked up and blown around, like four year olds? We'll never know, fortunately. Lots of spouts in the Keys to be sure.

I have a few more stories, but what have others experienced out there?

Was crew for a 31 foot sloop rigged sailboat on a weekly regatta at Davis Island in Tampa .. this was about 2 or 3 years ago.

It was a bit stormy out and we were having a good time. Our boat always came in last.. but we always had the best looking women and the most beer. A winning combination in my opinion.

A few of us started making comments on how the clouds looked like they did in the movie Twister and my girlfriend even said "ooooh I think we might get a waterspout"..

Sure enough.. not more than 1 minute later the clouds started to twirl and we all saw the damn thing form ...

it was on the far side of the bay.. probably 1000 yards.. maybe more. maybe less.. I am not good on judging distances (case in point.. my new waroo in a tree just last week ..ugh!!!!)..

I guess it was far out enough to where I didnt feel like it was going to be an issue with us but was more in awe of what I had just seen.

A few of the passengers on the boat didnt see it that way. At least 2 ladies ran downstairs and began sobbing and crying that they didnt want to die. The captain was getting ready with the motor in case the thing looked to be moving closer.. it seemed that it was going away from us.

As quickly as it has appeared a few minutes later it faded out and was gone. Everyone on board had a few extra drinks toasted many to the gods of wind for protecting us.. and again.. we came in dead last in the Regatta.

7-8 years ago I was in Virginia key and saw a 'spout form in Bear cut, it was moving south so we were safe then it cut across the northern tip of Crandon park mangrove area and out to sea

Luckily we were wind waitin' so no one was out on the water

Yeah, once every year or so u will see minor sprouts in the biscayne area.

Good stories guys, there must be more out there. Here's one that came along last weekend off Elbow Cay. Can shelf clouds toss off waterspouts and tornados in addition to strong gusty wind? We saw a number of shelf clouds pass over that morning. The folks flying out of Marsh Harbor at the time of this weather event had some particular entertainment.

http://gallery.kiteforum.com/albums/...co_5_28_06.jpg

We had 4 simultaneous ones 3 years ago here in Tampa Bay.
I even caught them on film. Let me look around for it. It was funny, we had Zack Kaplan kiting in the foreground (for all of 1 minute).
Funny shot. The funnels were about 3 miles behind him.

Please see if you can find it, it sounds interesting. I am reminded of a similar situation that I fell into at Crandon Park a couple of years ago. I was playing with a skimboard for the first time with an 18 m kite in fairly light wind. Still, it was easy to get up and going. The sun was out and it was partially cloudy. I was trying to edge offshore with a nearly onshore breeze and was concentrating somewhat. Paul Menta was on the beach with an instructors class. He called out to me and said I should look behind me. I did, there was about a 1000 ft. high waterspout roughly 1/2 mile offshore and moving our way. Whoops!

It vanished before coming close to shore, still it isn't like these things necessarily ring bells before they move in. Sometimes you just have to see them. It is a good idea to always be looking around, no matter how distracting your activity might be. Live and learn.

ima try kiting w/ a skimboard...
Close encounter, i shoull say
-Danny

Just came across this clip of impressive footage of the massive waterspout/tornado that hit Miami in August 2003.



and another impressive one from May 1997. There is some incredible downtown-funnel cloud footage:

im speechless...
now i have to increase my coverage on my house insurance...and medical...and car...and....

It is impressive to look at but I understand that waterspouts that survive to turn into destructive tornados on land are fairly rare. The last good one that I can recall to blitz through Ft. Lauderdale happened in the 1970's. There may have been others but they don't appear to be that common. So, I wouldn't lose sleep over this threat. Interesting clips though.

Bringing this old thread back, with this good sized waterspout off the Juno Pier last evening at about 7 pm. Here is a video:


"This is a video I took of a waterspout off of Jupiter, FL on June 24, 2012 at approximately 6:45 pm using my iPhone. The storms that spawned the waterspout are affiliated with tropical storm Debby."


Here are some still shots including a capture from the above video from WPTV,

http://contests.wptv.com/EngineConte...201P.jpg?ver=1
Waterspout off the Bluffs, intensifies off the coast of Jupiter Sunday 6/24/12
http://wptv.com/


http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/i...waterspout.jpg
From http://wptv.com/


The waterspout was located below that red bow hook that shows up off Jupiter/Juno below:

http://weather.aero/data/radar/nws_n...5835_black.png

More about waterspouts at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterspout


http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/700s/wea00342.jpg
From the hand of Ben Franklin in "Water-spouts and Whirlwinds" republished in "The complete works in philosophy, politics, and morals, of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin ....", 1806. Volume II, p. 26.


.

Checkout the post above this one for images on the massive waterspout sighted off Juno Beach last evening.

As visible as waterspouts are, kiters still fall victim to them at times. In the case of "fair weather" waterspouts the sun and partial cloudiness might take them in. A kiter was killed by one of these in Italy with another coming close to it.

http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/res...g?m=1327625520
A waterspout in Cerveteri, Italy on 6.20.09. Three kiters were lofted almost simultaneously with one fataly striking a building, another hitting a car and the third was able to emergency depower while on the beach.

"Real bad news, my sympathy goes out to the lost kiters family and friends. Best wishes for the full recovery of the other rider who was lofted at the same time. It looks like a third kiter was lofted but didn't suffer serious injury.

Internet translation:
Cerveteri, tornado sweeps surfers:
33enne building on crash dies

ROME (June 20) - They were doing kite-surf near the center of Ocean Surf Margherite the way to Campo di Mare (Cerveteri) when, at about 13.30, he caught a tornado making him take a flight of several meters . A man of 33 years originally from Cerveteri, living in Treviso and kitesurf instructor, was banged on the roof of a building of the promenade of Via delle Margherite and fall to the ground, ended against a railing of iron shot on the dying.

Another surfer, thirty, is over against the car passavno currently showing several fractures for which he has been admitted to the Gemelli Polyclinic, where he was transported to eliambulanza. Despite the prognosis confidential, is not in danger of life. More lucky the third, fallen on a stretch of beach: if you got with no serious injuries.

The swimmers who have witnessed the incident told the fire brigade intervened to have seen a whirlwind of air and the surfer, then dead, then a flight of 30-40 meters.

From: http://www.ilmeteo.it/clienti/ilmessaggero/homebox.html

and a TV report, http://tg24.sky.it/tg24/cronaca/2009..._un_morto.html

Looking at the satellite loop, it looks like a frontal boundary passed over the area of Italy around midday."
http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2357684


http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/res...g?m=1327625520

We have also had a kiter permanently paralyzed by yet another waterspout. All were blown horizontally with substantial force at speed. Waterspouts have sunk boats and played havoc with things at sea since we've been out there. I would avoid them like the plague.

http://goodheartextremescience.files...pg?w=253&h=338
Waterspout wind field. Checkout the horizontal outflow component and the undefined vertical component by the shaft. Winds plenty strong enough to mess up a kiter.

There are fair weather waterspouts, such as frequent the Florida Keys and Great Lakes. These generate winds on the order of less than 60 mph to around 100 mph, perhaps more. These are associated with cummulous clouds. Then there are tornadic waterspouts connected to supercell cummulonimbus storm clouds. The super cell can throw out lethal winds all by itself without any input from the waterspout. This is a far more common scenario where kiters are concerned. Tornadic waterspouts can develop into as high as F5 tornados on land although rarely. An F1 twister is plenty enough to kill you though if you have a kite up, regardless of kite orientation.

Here is a video of a waterspout that went ashore in Australia and turned into a tornado in short order. Checkout the debris field, anyone up for flying a kite through this?
http://<br /> http://footage.bsch.a...pout040806.wmv[/quote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Z_MF6JQsg

A fair weather waterspout came ashore opposite Bahia Mar yesterday in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. It threw an bounce house containing four young kids what appears to be 30 ft. + into the air, over the pedestrian bridge and apparently into A1A perhaps 300 ft. downwind. Three were released from the hospital while the third, a young girls is still at Broward General. I wish her all speed in healing and going home soon.

http://fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes...g?m=1432654027

A video of the waterspout coming ashore from another perspective.
https://www.facebook.com/brandon.bur...type=3&theater

The waterspout, (actually dust devil or tornado at that point?) broke a light pole (aluminum?) and a steel basketball standard. Waterspouts are common in the warmer months in South Florida. Sometimes they can quietly "sneak" up on you if you aren't looking in that direction. It looks like many at the beach and park were unaware it was moving ashore close to them.

I don't think it is practical to configure a bounce house for such weather extremes. About all you can do is to stay aware, particularly this time of year. I recall at least one other bounce house being picked up by a dust devil or twister in recent years. Funnel clouds and waterspouts have killed and paralyzed some kiters in Europe. If you are out, particularly this time of year kiting, you need to stay aware and look for things like this.

As developed and controlled as our world may seem, weather phenomena still occur which are beyond our ability to oppose or control. Lightening, hurricanes, drought, blizzards, bursts and on, it is a long list. We need to avoid these hazards and otherwise manage ourselves the best that we can to try to avoid harm. Stay aware, use good sense and try to avoid problems.

http://goodheartextremescience.files...pg?w=253&h=338

A fair weather waterspout is more of a subtle threat and about the only way to try to reduce the odds of problems is to stay aware. If you see one, seek cover immediately in a good safe, shelter or if in a boat proceed at best speed 90 degrees from its direction of travel.

Signs to look for, black bases on flat cumulous clouds (cloud streets), funnel droops or "pointy" or ragged features along cloud base, dark spots on the water, rotating water masses at cloud base or on the water. You can actually see these funnel clouds try to develop, fail, merge, vanish, reappear a times.

http://fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes...g?m=1432653323
A long low, flat cumulus cloud which generated a clear weather waterspout severely hurting some kiters in Italy.

Waterspouts often dissipate rapidly once on land, but not always. Sometimes they turn into tornados. There was one which did a lot of damage to several houses in the Harbor Beach area just to the southeast in the 1970's. There are tornadic waterspouts associated with severe thunderstorm clouds with greater potential for harm. Usually, the clouds they are associated with are far more threatening in appearance than the fair weather waterspouts.

http://i.usatoday.net/weather/_photo...cusx-large.jpg

http://fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes...g?m=1432653322
A funnel cloud forms in Italy but the kiter seem unaware or unconcerned. The accidents happened shortly after this point.


More about waterspouts at:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tbw/?n=waterspouts
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weath...o/wtspouts.htm
http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=1528

http://blog.weatherflow.com/wp-conte...m-Clouding.jpg
http://blog.weatherflow.com/


Shea Gibson with WeatherFlow/iKitesurf just prepared a good article on what causes morning waterspouts to develop off South Carolina.
Some of the same principles apply to funnel cloud and waterspout formation off Florida as well.


More at:
http://blog.weatherflow.com/south-ca...pout-activity/


https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...ed&oe=56629C20


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