Waterspouts (not the garden variety)

 A picture of a Tornadic Waterspout

What do you see when you first look at this picture? to most it appears to be a tornado made of liquid water that is rising up from the ocean. This is exactly what I thought it was when I saw a video of one forming off the coast of Florida (Video). However, after doing some research I discovered that these "water tornadoes" are known as Waterspouts and are actually a diverse and complex group of whirling columns of air and mist.

 According to NOAA (National Ocean Atmospheric Administration) there are two main groups of Waterspouts: Fair weather waterspouts and Tornadic waterspouts. Fair-weather and Tornadic Waterspouts are distinguished based on their formation and and the conditions in which they are formed.

As the name implies, Fair-weather Waterspouts form in calmer weather conditions, usually along the dark flat base of a line of developing cumulus clouds. When a Fair weather waterspout is forming it starts from the water and slowly rises towards the clouds. Although they should never be underestimated Fair weather waterspouts tend to not be very dangerous and can be examined closely if approached with caution.

Fair weather Waterspout

 However, the opposite is true with Tornadic Waterspouts which tend to be very dangerous. Tornadic Waterspouts can be formed by two different processes. The first process occurs when a land tornado happens to travel over a large body of water and it starts to carry the water .The  second process occurs when there is a large storm (usually with lightning involved) over a large body of water. Unlike fair-weather Waterspouts, Tornadic Waterspouts start from the clouds and go head downwards towards the body of water. When there is chance of Tornadic Waterspouts you should not go on the water or near the shore as they can be as dangerous as a normal tornado.  
   

Tornadic Waterspout

Interestingly there is a third type of Waterspout which is extremely rare and is only found up North. This Waterspout is known as a Snowpout or ice devil and it has only been recorded six times. Interestingly four of these Snowspouts were recorded Ontario. The reason that Ice devils are so rare is because they can only form in very specific conditions. The condition's are that is has to form in extremely cold weather over a body of water still warm enough to produce fog. Because of their rarity Snowspouts are one of the most interesting yet poorly understood weather phenomena.

Despite their rarity, Waterspouts are a very interesting topic which would definitively be worth more in depth research.







Sources

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/waterspout.html
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/water-spouts
http://oceantoday.noaa.gov/waterspouts/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterspout#Snowspout