Waterspout
A waterspout is a funnel cloud over water. It is a nonsupercell tornado over water. Waterspouts do not suck up water; the water seen in the main funnel cloud is actually water droplets formed by condensation.[1] It is weaker than most of its land counterparts.[2]
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Types [change]
Non-tornadic [change]
Waterspouts that are not associated with a rotating updraft of a supercell thunderstorm, are known as "nontornadic" or "fair-weather waterspouts", and are by far the most common type.[3]
Fair-weather waterspouts occur in coastal waters and are associated with dark, flat-bottomed, developing convective cumulus towers.
Snowspout [change]
A winter waterspout, also known as a snow devil, an icespout, an ice devil, a snonado, or a snowspout, is a very rare meteorological phenomenon in which a vortex from snow develops that looks like a waterspout.[4] One does not know much about this rare happening and there are only six known pictures of this event so far.
There are three main things that produce a winter waterspout:
- Very cold temperatures present over a body of warm water enough to produce fog that looks like steam above the water's surface. This usually needs temperatures of -18 °C or colder if the water temperature is no warmer than 5 °C.
- Lake-effect snows in a small, enclosed or banded formation must be present and going on.
- The wind speed has to be slow, usually less than 5 knots (9.25 km/h).
Other pages [change]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Waterspout |
References [change]
- ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica (2009). "Waterspout". http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/637532/waterspout. Retrieved 28 August 2009.
- ↑ Glossary of Meteorology. Waterspout. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
- ↑ Gale Schools. Fair weather waterspout. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
- ↑ weather.com - Glossary
Other websites [change]
- British and European Tornado Extremes
- A series of pictures from the boat Nicorette getting impressively close to the south coast tornadic waterspout.
- A USA Today online article on waterspouts: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wspouts.htm
- Home video of a waterspout on Long Island Sound on 27 September 2006
- Pictures of cold-core waterspouts over Lake Michigan on 30 September 2006. Archived from the original on March 102007.
http://aoss-research.engin.umich.edu/PlanetaryEnvironmentResearchLaboratory/
