Waterspouts?

Saw this in text from the NWS Cleveland yesterday - Did anyone witness a waterspout? Any pictures? Curious

SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
334 PM EDT MON JUN 18 2012

OHC043-181945-
/O.CON.KCLE.TO.W.0002.000000T0000Z-120618T1945Z/
ERIE OH-
334 PM EDT MON JUN 18 2012

...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 345 PM EDT FOR EASTERN
ERIE COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL OHIO...

AT 325 PM EDT...THE PUBLIC REPORTED A WATERSPOUT NEAR CEDAR POINT.
THE STORM WAS MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH. ANOTHER STORM HAS MOVED
INTO SOUTHERN ERIE COUNTY NEAR BERLIN HEIGHTS AT 333 PM AND WAS
STRENGTHENING. THIS STORM IS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGE AND A
TORNADO IS NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION.

Andre Bernier, weather man at Cleveland Channel 8 talked about it on the 5 o'clock news. He said know's someone that lives near the park that saw the waterspout.

My friend claimed he saw a tornado (which wasn't true) but this could possibly have been what he meant.

I'm sure there was, water spouts are very common on Lake Erie. My parents always talk about all the water spouts they see on Lake Erie from Hopkins airport.

Was just curious really. Wish someone would have been there to capture it. Waterspouts are generally rare weather phenomena on Lake Erie (A few events every 10 years or so) so it's always pretty cool when it does happen.

Still bummed out I missed the 2004 event when I worked at the park because I was on lunch break.

Maybe they're rare near Sandusky but there common near Cleveland.

Still takes quite a bit to get waterspouts anywhere, especially on the great lakes. They aren't very common.

A technical paper if anyone is interested
http://www.essl.org/ECSS/2009/preprints/O05-14-sziladgyi.pdf

A friend of mine who was there said he's pretty sure he saw one off a little ways from Wicked Twister (which is an ironically named ride for one to plop down next to).

I've seen many waterspouts. In my opinion, I wouldn't call them very rare at all. Well, only if there is some sort of server weather, then they are pretty common. But, other than that, I wouldn't see very many. Maybe I have just been in the right place at the right time because they aren't too hard for me to find. I love when I see double waterspouts tangled in each other, they are pretty cool.

But, to contribute to the main discussion, I also heard about it on the news but haven't seen any pictures.

Good video from a couple years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI27jlwNk2E

I'm guessing you didn't realize that the person who put that video on Youtube is the same one who started this thread.

There are two different kinds of waterspouts. What Ben is referring to is known as a tornadic waterspout. And he's right, those are fairly rare.

The other kind is the fair weather waterspout. They are much more common, often occurring in the fall when a cold mass moves over the relatively warm lake.

Good read:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/apx/science/waterspouts/waterspouts.php

I've often wondered where people are supposed to go in case of a tornado or severe weather. Anyone know the answer?

Ralph Wiggum said:
A friend of mine who was there said he's pretty sure he saw one off a little ways from Wicked Twister (which is an ironically named ride for one to plop down next to).

I saw a water spout 2 different times when working Twister. It was an awesome experience. Wicked Twister, from my understanding, was actually named after the 1998 twister that lurked around the peninsula

MHW said:
I've often wondered where people are supposed to go in case of a tornado or severe weather. Anyone know the answer?

There are signs indicating storm shelters throughout the park:

Just about every bathroom in the park has a storm shelter sign on it. Not sure if that's where I want to ride out a wicked thunderstorm like we had here Monday though. :)

Walt said:

MHW said:
I've often wondered where people are supposed to go in case of a tornado or severe weather. Anyone know the answer?

There are signs indicating storm shelters throughout the park:

Also The park's weather alert system does tell guests where to go for a storm shelter. I know the day when the storms came through where I was I could here it direct people to a shelter and I was outside directing people myself helping them get to someplace.

I'll never forget when I saw a tornado and a few waterspouts all at the same time on our side of Lake Erie several years back. After a quick Google search it seems as though it was August 4, 1999. I would have been 11 at the time and was at the beach with my mom, sister, and cousin. The weather clouded up and got windy so my mom and sister headed to the car but my cousin and I kept digging in the sand on the beach. My mom honked the car horn a couple of times at us and waved for us to come to the car. We were in Port Burwell, ON right on Lake Erie and out in the water there were 2-3 waterspouts and one big tornado way east up on land near Longpoint, ON. I'll never forget that day. I could see the debris flying around the base of the tornado, plus to see see multiple waterspouts at the same time was incredible. I wish I would have had a camera at that moment.

I'm guessing this is the one I saw:

http://www.ontariostorms.com/1999/longpoint/longpoint.html

Zeek said:
Also The park's weather alert system does tell guests where to go for a storm shelter. I know the day when the storms came through where I was I could here it direct people to a shelter and I was outside directing people myself helping them get to someplace.

Is the park now equipped with a PA system used for severe weather announcements?

It comes over the speakers used for the music. The music cuts out and an alarm tone comes over the system and then the a recorded response follows. Once the storm has passed it has a recording stating the storm is now out of the area.