weather and waves

Waterspouts
By Jack Williams

Imagine youve been diving from a boat in the Florida Keys on a

humid summer day with hardly a breath of air stirring, when
suddenly someone points o in the distance and yells, Look at
that. When you look, you see a solid-looking but almost
transparent funnel stretching from the bottom of a cloud to the
water, where its kicking up spray.
It reminds you of the videos youve seen on television news of tornadoes
on their way to destroy Midwestern towns, except the funnel, the cloud and even the sky dont seem to be as
dark as in the news videos of tornadoes. Youre fascinated, but also fearful and curious. Whats going on? What
causes a twirling rope of wind to stretch from a cloud to the ocean? You know tornadoes are deadly, and this
looks like a tornado, but it doesnt look all that frightening. You are most likely seeing a waterspout, which is not
merely a tornado over water as dictionaries or out-of-date books about weather will tell you.

What Is a Waterspout?
A waterspout, like a tornado, consists of air thats rising into a cloud. Various natural forces that researchers are
just learning to understand in detail have given the rising air its spinning motion. As the air rises, more air rushes
in to replace it, and begins spinning and rising into the cloud.
And yes, waterspouts can be dangerous. In 1980 one overturned a shrimp boat near Corpus Christi, Texas. They
are nothing to play with, as some boaters do when they zoom into the edges of waterspouts. Most of the time
their winds arent as fast as those of large tornadoes. Winds of most waterspouts rarely top 50 mph/81 kph. But
you cant count on a waterspout being harmless; some have been observed with winds as fast as 200 mph/322
kph. Powerful tornadoes, like those that ripped across Oklahoma and Kansas on May 3, 1999, destroying swaths
of well-built houses, are rare along the Gulf of Mexico and Florida coasts, and are unknown over the warm water
around the worlds tropics. Such places do produce waterspouts, however.
Waterspouts and tornadoes are cousins, and the dividing line between them isnt always clear-cut, even to
research meteorologists. Most waterspouts range from 10 to 300 feet/3 to 91 m in diameter and last 10 to 15
minutes. A large Plains tornado, in contrast, might be as much as a mile wide, last for more than an hour and
produce winds of 300 mph/483 kph or faster.
In the last 20 years or so meteorologists have stopped talking about
waterspouts being tornadoes over water, as researchers have discovered
many basic dierences between large tornadoes and waterspouts. To show
how complicated weather can be, researchers have also discovered that
some small tornadoes that form over the Great Plains have more in common
with Florida Keys waterspouts than with strong tornadoes. Some researchers

use the term landspouts for these twisters, but other meteorologists wince
when they hear that term.
No matter what theyre called, all these vortices have one thing in common: They are attached to clouds. This
separates them from dust devils, the whirling winds usually seen over warm land that carry dust and dirt into
the air, but zzle out in a clear sky, sometimes hundreds of feet above the ground.
Tornadoes vs. Waterspouts
What are the dierences between big tornadoes and waterspouts? Tornadoes, especially the killers with winds
of 150 mph/242 kph or more, are a part of powerful, long-lasting thunderstorms known as supercells that can
tower more than 40,000 feet/12,191 m above the ground. These storms and the tornadoes they produce
are powered by the heat released when humidity in rising air condenses to form clouds. But winds blowing from
dierent directions at various altitudes help supply energy, as well as the spinning motion that helps create
tornadoes.
Waterspouts, in contrast, are attached to cumulus clouds that normally top out at 18,000 or 20,000 feet/5,486 or
6,096 m. Sometimes a waterspouts parent cloud might produce a few lightning bolts, but often theres no
lightning. The heat energy of water vapor condensing to form the cloud supplies most of the energy that powers
waterspouts. They dont have the energy of high-altitude winds to draw on as strong tornadoes do.
Large, extremely violent tornadoes are most common in the Great Plains, in the Midwest and across inland parts
of the Southeast. They usually spare the coastal Southeast, but a few violent tornadoes have hit central Florida,
including coastal areas. These are most likely in the spring.
In the United States, waterspouts are more common in the summer, with the Florida Keys having more than any
other location. Researchers have estimated that as many as 400 to 500 waterspouts form in the Keys during an
average year, but most go unreported because they are so common. Waterspouts are also relatively common
along Floridas Atlantic Coast, and along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas. While they are less common,
waterspouts have also been reported along the West Coast and on all of the Great Lakes. Waterspouts are
sometimes reported in the tropics, but good statistics on them arent available.
Forecasting
Unlike waterspouts, strong tornadoes are the product of widespread, vigorous weather systems that forecasters
usually see coming a day or two ahead of time. The National Weather Service begins issuing alerts well before
tornadoes begin forming, and television weathercasters make sure their viewers know dangerous weather is on
the way.
Once thunderstorms begin growing, forecasters use Doppler weather radar, which can detect wind motions in
storms, to look for indications that a tornado is forming. Often they can spot the very earliest stages of a
potential killer tornado and issue warnings even before the funnel touches the ground. The larger the tornado,
the easier it is to detect by radar.
Since much smaller and less violent weather systems produce waterspouts, the signs that something is brewing
are harder to spot. While National Weather Service oces in all U.S. coastal areas have Doppler radar, it isnt
likely to detect early signs that a waterspout or a series of waterspouts is forming, because the air motions
involved are too small for the radar to see.
But meteorologists at National Weather Service oces where waterspouts are common, such as at Miami and
Melbourne, Florida, are researching them, looking for ways to improve forecasts. As a result, weather oces will
often produce a hazardous weather outlook to alert boaters to the possibility of waterspouts several hours
before any form. When reports of waterspouts are received, Weather Service oces issue special marine
warnings giving their locations. The Weather Service urges boaters who see a waterspout to report it quickly,
because this helps forecasters issue timely alerts.

How Waterspouts Form

Waterspouts generally form with clouds that have at bottoms, and often just as light

rain is beginning to fall from the cloud. Sometimes you might see a funnel that doesnt
seem to reach all the way to the water hanging from the cloud. Researchers in
airplanes and helicopters often see a circular, light-colored disk on the water under
the funnel, which is surrounded by a large, dark area. But someone in a boat isnt
likely to see this.
This so-called dark spot is a good sign that the vortex does reach from the cloud to the water; it just hasnt
become visible yet. The dark spot then might develop into a pattern of light- and dark-colored bands on the
water that spiral out from the dark spot. This is a sign that a stronger swirling pattern is developing in the funnel,
much of which is still invisible. As the waterspout grows stronger, it begins kicking up a ring of sea spray around
the dark spot.
As the wind swirling around the funnel grows to around 40 mph/64 kph, it begins to carry the spray upward in a
circular pattern known as a spray vortex. The funnel begins to become more and more visible as the low air
pressure inside it cools the air enough for water vapor to begin condensing into tiny droplets. The funnel that
you see is really a swirling cloud.
Soon, the funnel and spray vortex begins falling apart as the ow of warm air into the funnel begins to weaken.
Often, rain that begins falling nearby brings down cool air that will strangle the waterspout by cutting o its
supply of warm, humid air.
While waterspouts dont have the deadly records of property destroyed and lives lost that large tornadoes do,
they can be dangerous and should be avoided. The best advice when you spot one is to try to get out of its way
by going at right angles to its path. Even a weak waterspout could send loose objects ying around a boat to
become deadly missiles.
If you see one waterspout, you should keep an eye out for more, since they often form in groups. They seem to
be most likely when winds are generally calm at the surface. Since weather conditions change slowly in the
summer over the warm waters where waterspouts are most common, it is likely that if you see one waterspout,
you might see others the following day.

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