Waterspout

A waterspout is a tornado that is on water. It's a waterspout in the water and a tornado on land.

How bad was was the wind? In one pic Magnum was still running.

It never stormed on shore, so the rides were kept open.

From the article that I referenced above: "The belief that a waterspout is nothing more than a tornado over water is only partially true."

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Mathyou said:
It never stormed on shore

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I know rain hit the front of the park. It was pouring while I rode the Raptor, but only lasted for 15 minutes or so. DD and Sky Ride were down but Raptor and Blue Streak remained open.

Sky Ride down? There's a shocker...

Good Article, by the way, Walt. I actually learned something *** Edited 8/17/2004 6:47:51 PM UTC by bholcomb***

Well, yes, it did rain. But I don't recall it raining when the waterspout took place, at lest not in the back of the park. But trust me, I took advantage of the rain storm around 5'ish and rode raptor a few times myself. I couldn't believe no one was in line for it!

There wasn't even much wind at the time of the waterspout, and in fact even the Sky Ride was running when the waterspout was sighted. The Sky Ride did go down later in the day, but that was when the heavier rain hit; in fact I was at the top of the ramp at the Corkscrew end of Sky Ride when they took it down...an interesting process to watch, though I was kind of bummed that (a) I didn't have my camera with me to document the shutdown and (b) I didn't get to ride to the front of the park. :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Wasnt there a tornado that hit CP a few years ago, or was that just a strong storm? I remember reading something about people having to take shelter in the tunnel near the Magnum, then again maybe i dreamed this

You didn't dream it, it happened. Several years ago. A severe storm took out a lot of trees in the back of the park.

MrScott

That is scary. This year I was in line for raptor when a storm came and everyone yelled "tornado". Everyone was jumping over the queue lines and running for their lives lol. I hid under the Sky Ride. No tornado, just some lightening and lots of rain.

Back in the 70's (i think) a tornado did some damage to the mine ride. It also cleared a bunch of trees that they were going to remove for the construction of Gemini.

sahara, did that happen in early june? I remember a bad storm that hit the point around then. I was walking down the main midway when I saw tons of people running out of raptors queue, and I thought to myself, you just don't see that everyday.

Most waterspouts are NOT tornados over water, they're two separate animals. Please read the page Walt linked to...you might learn something.

Dug up an old VHS of a taped news segment from our local Fox 'News' cast. (The term news is to be used lightly)

Gotta love the sensationalism.

Anyway, Here's a link

Cedar Point Tornado.wmv (16.8 MB)

Quality is low (I didn't have the greatest VCR in 1998.)

Wow, you do have to love the sensationalism. According to that story, a stranger released those people's Power Tower restraints after the employees took off. Riiiiight. I highly doubt some Joe Schmo walked into the controls booth and knew what to do to release the restraints.

My guess is that they paniced, and couldn't get their seatbelts off :) But thats just my best guess. It's funny nonetheless

I was staying at Marblehead and riding my bike back from the lighthouse when a bad storm hit the area. Cars pulled off the road and people were pointing to the sky and yelling. As I looked up, there was this HUGE waterspout. It was so close and I could see it spinning. Too bad I didn't have my camera at the time, cuz I could have had fantastic photos.

Could you imagine being on Giant Wheel or Wicked Twister when the waterspout last year hit CP?