Giant Waterspout Spotted Swirling Off Florida Coast [LOOK]

Stunning footage of waterspouts in Florida in the United States is going viral on social media.

On Tuesday, the violent thunderstorms in northwest Florida produced these waterspouts, often known as tornadoes over water.

People are frequently in awe of the natural phenomena, which occasionally also go from land to sea.

Locals photographed the breathtaking scene from a nearby apartment building and a beach. The footage demonstrates many lightning strikes close to the waterspout and ominous storm clouds.

Waterspout Swirling Off Florida Coast Stun Witnesses

According to CBS News, one of the Instagram videos was taken on a beach in Destin on Tuesday and panned from low-lying black clouds to a large funnel-like tornado. It seems to link the sky with the sea.

After developing, this waterspout drifted away from the beach and avoided contacting the ground.

A waterspout can be seen on the water's surface in another video uploaded to Facebook and shot on a beach. These water tornadoes were not associated with any injuries.

According to Accuweather, the National Weather Service issued a special marine warning for offshore seas shortly after the waterspout was observed.

Daily Mail wrote that the waterspout is the sixth recorded in the Florida Panhandle this summer.

Since there isn't much information on these meteorological events, experts are unsure how frequently they generally happen.

This month, a different waterspout that was even more damaging than the one in Florida emerged in Maryland.

The funnel crossed Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay on August 5, destroying several homes and wounding one person.

The 'Rope' Stage Of A Tornado
View of the 'rope' or decay stage of tornado seen during 'Sound Chase,' a joint project of NSSL and Mississippi State University in Cordell, Oklahoma May 22, 1981. NOAA Photo Library/Getty Images

After the tornado devastated multiple houses and businesses, more than $10,000 has been collected for recovery and cleanup activities.

Recent days' high humidity and temperature in the region have caused a waterspout to drag itself over the water before moving onto the land to form a tornado.

Waterspout Defined

As defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a waterspout is a spinning column of water and air mist. It separated them into two groups: tornadic waterspouts and fair-weather waterspouts.

Tornadic waterspouts, according to NOAA, are tornadoes that develop over water or migrate from land to water. They have many traits similar to a land tornado. It said these waterspouts are connected to powerful thunderstorms and are frequently accompanied by rough waves, big hail, and perilous lighting.

On the other hand, according to the organization, fair-weather waterspouts often form around the dark, flat base of a line of forming cumulus clouds. Fair weather waterspouts grow on the water's surface and move upward, unlike tornadic waterspouts, which form downward during thunderstorms.

Check out more news and information on Environment in Science Times.

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