Waterspout: 7/14/06!

Im surprised that by the time I got back here that there wasnt already a post about this. I was over on the islands this afternoon and saw a waterspout headin right towards the point. Everyone around me was talking about it so I swear im not crazy. Its really unfortunate that it had to happened today, my cell phone broke yesterday and my new one isnt coming in until monday so I couldnt take pictures.

Was anyone else there today that saw this?

I watched the whole storm and did not see a thing.

I heard the same thing from a friend that went today, she said people were talking about it all over the park. She did not see it.

There is a picture of a waterspout (not this one, but from a while ago) floating around on the internet somewhere... It looked neat but I have no idea where the pic is now.

it used to be the featured picture on this site.. . http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?a=363

i was actually there that day that it did happen

I believe either back in '99 or '98 I was at Cedar Point and witnessed a water spout. I remember having to hide under some trees over by the current Choas spot.

Wouldn't surprise me. There was a tornado warning issued for Clare county in Michigan from a popup storm, and for Knox County in Ohio. The storms today were a bit odd to say the least.

Kknox County is snack dab in the middle of the state, about two hourse from Sandusky. I know because my roomate last year lived there. Probably wouldn't have affected Erie county.

I was there for some waterspouts in '04. I think there are some pics of that particular event on this site, but let me tell you, they do not do the spouts justice. Those things, while supposedly being harmless to people on land, are really big and scary looking! :) A lot of people were flipping out as we were dispatching trains through the whole thing.

Yeah... working MF during the '04 waterspouts was crazy. On Point it was sunny at the time, and people in the queue were saying "theres a tornado near the park"... and we would just say "we know, it's a waterspout, everything is just fine", even though Matt is very right, they did look quite frightening. We called Park Op, and they said they knew about it, and to just keep running the ride... I wish I could have got a view of the waterspout from 310 ft, that would have been pretty cool.

So, if park officials wer tellin you to keep the rides running, then waterspouts can't come onto land thus becoming a tornado?! I thought they could. I don't know anything about them tho! haha

Waterspouts can certianly move ashore, so it must have been a considerable distance away.

I'm sure one of our resident weather people can explain it better, but I'm pretty sure I've read that it is very rare for a waterspout to move onto land.

I did a little research for you and this is what I found from www.en.wikipedia.com

A waterspout[url][url] is merely a tornado over water. In general, most tornadoes over land are associated with a severe thunderstorm; however, the can cause significant damage if they impact land areas. In addition, strong tornadoes can move over lakes or over the ocean, becoming waterspouts, without losing intensity.

I hope this helps!
*** Edited 7/15/2006 7:25:40 PM UTC by campfreak06***

Waterspouts feed on moist air, and a tornado isnt a cloud, its a vortex caused by wind shear, which picks out debris which is called the debris field (whoa) and that give the illusion of a spinning cloud. While if one is over water it picks up water, they last from 2 to 20 minutes and create minimal hurricane force winds. They are most frequented on tropical oceans, not lakes. But it is possible. They can be a few feet or miles tall, and make a hissing noice like if you stuck a vacuum on a swimming pool.. they move up to 80 mph and come in groups. What seems like one waterspout may actually be multiple ones which change up without you knowing. Now there are 'non-tornadic' ones and 'tornadic' ones. If there was a bad mesostorm then it was tornadic and if it came on land, it would cause little damage and dissipate. If it was non-tornadic in fair weather, it wouldn't even make it on land.

I was there last year when it happened or was it 2 years a ago?

Once again, the weakness of Wiki comes to light. :)

Anyway, here is one of the better waterspout articles I've seen. It's an interesting read, has accurate info, and isn't too technical.

A couple of key points from the article:

"The fact is, depending on how they form, waterspouts come in two types: tornadic and fair weather."

"The belief that a waterspout is nothing more than a tornado over water is only partially true."

*** Edited 7/15/2006 10:10:32 PM UTC by Walt***

which is a simplified version of what i said

There is also a thing called a landspout. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/grr/science/20050629/