Water Spouts

Water spouts are another type of tornado. A water spout is a tornado that hoovers over land and is formed by strong pull of water forming the tornado’s funnel and high wind speeds around it. Water spouts can form in two different ways. During normal weather when water temperatures are high and the air is very humid is typically when water spouts can form at sea level. The second way a water spout can form is like a regular tornado, it will form from a cloud and descend down but will touch water’s surface.

It is not as common for a water spout to form from a cloud, but when they do, they are typically more destructive than a water spout forming at sea level. When a water spout is formed from a cloud they are so destructive that they are able to pull fish from the water into the tornado and release them back out when the fish reach the top of the water spouts. A person would need to be far above the water level, such as in a plane or on a mountain, to see the first sign of a waterspout. It starts as a dark spot forming on the ocean.

The second phase still could not be seen from a ship, but could perhaps could be felt as the wind shifts and speeds up. If a person on a boat happened to look up at the cloud above when sensing the change in the wind, that person might notice a funnel forming in the clouds even though the vortex on the water’s surface is not clearly visible. As the winds increases, the spray is visible from the vortex on the ocean surface. When a waterspout is fully matured, anyone with eyes to see can watch the funnel reach from the cloud to dip and twist into the water.

They also hiss and suck at the water instead of the rumbling growl of a twister on land. Waterspouts can also form over lakes or rivers, but are most commonly seen over the ocean. They suck up the water in their path, billowing a water spray like a mushroom cloud against the water surface. Waterspouts can range in size from several feet to more than a mile high, and their width can vary from a few feet to hundreds of feet. It is not uncommon to see more than one water-twister at a time. Some ships have reported seeing as many as 30 waterspouts in a single day.