Puricare Industrial Enterprises: WATERSPOUTS - Like many forces in nature, waterspouts can be both beautiful and dangerous. They've been known to overturn boats, damage large ships, and put lives in jeopardy. If you spot one, exercise extreme caution and keep your distance. Don't leave your safety up in the air – try to avoid these turbulent twisters. If a waterspout is sighted, immediately head at a 90 degree angle from the apparent motion of the waterspout. Never try to navigate through a waterspout. Although waterspouts are usually weaker than tornadoes, they can still produce significant damage to you and your boat. They are sometimes seen as threatening funnel clouds descending from stormy skies. Others can be nearly invisible, like a ghostly spiral of wind skimming the sea surface. These eerie columns of rotating air are known as waterspouts — commonly defined as tornadoes over water. Waterspouts usually develop over warm tropical ocean waters. They're spotted in the Florida Keys more than any other place in the world. They've also been seen over the waters of the Great Lakes. Scientists that study waterspouts generally put them in two categories: fair weather and tornadic. The tornadic waterspouts may often begin as tornadoes over land and then move over water. They also form in severe thunderstorms over a body of water. They can wreak havoc with high winds, hail, and dangerous lightning. Fair weather waterspouts develop in calmer weather.

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Waterspouts

Waterspouts usually develop over warm tropical ocean waters. They're spotted in the Florida Keys more than any other place in the world. They've also been seen over the waters of the Great Lakes.

Like many forces in nature, waterspouts can be both beautiful and dangerous. They've been known to overturn boats, damage large ships, and put lives in jeopardy. If you spot one, exercise extreme caution and keep your distance. Don't leave your safety up in the air – try to avoid these turbulent twisters. If a waterspout is sighted, immediately head at a 90 degree angle from the apparent motion of the waterspout. Never try to navigate through a waterspout. Although waterspouts are usually weaker than tornadoes, they can still produce significant damage to you and your boat.

The Ocean Today

They are sometimes seen as threatening funnel clouds descending from stormy skies.

Others can be nearly invisible, like a ghostly spiral of wind skimming the sea surface.

These eerie columns of rotating air are known as waterspouts — commonly defined as tornadoes over water.

Waterspouts usually develop over warm tropical ocean waters.

They're spotted in the Florida Keys more than any other place in the world.

They've also been seen over the waters of the Great Lakes.

Scientists that study waterspouts generally put them in two categories: fair weather and tornadic.

The tornadic waterspouts may often begin as tornadoes over land and then move over water.

They also form in severe thunderstorms over a body of water. They can wreak havoc with high winds, hail, and dangerous lightning.

Fair weather waterspouts develop in calmer weather.

They form only over open water, developing at the surface and actually climbing skyward towards the clouds.

The size of all waterspouts can range from just a few feet, to several hundred feet wide.

Research shows that fair weather waterspouts exhibit a five-stage life cycle:

Stage 1 is the formation of a disk on the surface of the water, known as a dark spot;

Stage 2 is a spiral pattern on the water surface;

Stage 3 is a formation of a spray ring;

Stage 4 is where the waterspout becomes a visible funnel; and the lifecycle ends with

Stage 5 is where the waterspout decays.

Like many forces in nature, waterspouts can be both beautiful and dangerous.

They've been known to overturn boats, damage large ships, and put lives in jeopardy.

If you spot one, exercise extreme caution and keep your distance.

Don't leave your safety up in the air – try to avoid these turbulent twisters.

Fast Facts

Waterspouts are spotted in the Florida Keys - more than any other place on earth.

Listen for special marine warnings about waterspout sightings that are broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio.

Watch the sky for certain types of clouds.

In the summer, with light winds, look for a possible waterspout underneath a line of cumulus clouds with dark, flat bases.

Anytime of the year, a thunderstorm or line of thunderstorms, can produce very intense waterspouts.

If a waterspout is sighted, immediately head at a 90 degree angle from the apparent motion of the waterspout.

Never try to navigate through a waterspout.

Although waterspouts are usually weaker than tornadoes, they can still produce significant damage to you and your boat.

The Ocean Today website provides access to the current and archived videos that play on the Ocean Today multimedia exhibit. Ocean Today was designed as a highly dynamic, visitor-friendly experience at the Sant Ocean Hall in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. It has expanded to many other locations around the world.

The Ocean Today website is an online archive of the videos that appear on the physical kiosks. The videos are categorized in the seven theme areas: Collections, Danger Zone, Exploration, Fix the Ocean, Go Fish, Marine Life, and Research. A description of Ocean Today, kiosks locations, how to obtain a kiosk and requirements, and contributor information can found in the “What is Ocean Today” section.

https://oceantoday.noaa.gov/waterspouts/

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