Waterspout facts for kids
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. It is weaker than most of its land counterparts.
Types
Non-tornadic
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.
Fair-weather waterspouts occur in coastal waters and are associated with dark, flat-bottomed, developing convective cumulus towers.
Snowspout
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. 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).
Related pages
- Winter waterspout
- Funnel cloud
- Tornado
- A series of pictures from the boat Nicorette getting impressively close to the south coast tornadic waterspout.
Images for kids
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Waterspout filmed off Anglesey, Wales, on 15 November 2010 by an RAF Search and Rescue crew
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Tornadic waterspout on 15 July 2005 off the coast of Punta Gorda, Florida, caused by a severe thunderstorm.
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A large winter waterspout over Lake Ontario, just off the shore of Whitby, Ontario on 26 January 1994.
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A family of four waterspouts seen on the Great Lakes (Lake Huron) on 9 September 1999.
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Illustration from the book The Philosophy of Storms, published in 1841
See also
In Spanish: Manga de agua para niños
