2018-07-17 Event: NY/NJ

[Dan Robinson]

Reports of a funnel/waterspout visible in New York harbor today (July 17, 2018) are going viral, but the feature is questionable:

https://twitter.com/DavidScarth/status/1019352132166832128

https://twitter.com/michaeluturn/status/1019292967633289216

https://twitter.com/maximusupinNYc/status/1019295374547222529

https://twitter.com/DaveCurren/status/1019310598860038145

This appears to be a "shark's tooth", a non-tornadic low-hanging scud formation on a gust front/shelf cloud. These can be tapered like funnels and have fooled many in the past. Complicating the ID of these is that they exhibit rising motion as many scud fragments do on the leading edge of stronger gust fronts.

Here is an example of one in St. Louis several years ago:



The NY NWS office seems to disagree, however:

https://twitter.com/NWSNewYorkNY/status/1019304288621867011

 

[JamesCaruso]

IDK, the picture from Michael Uturn’s twitter post really looks like a funnel, seems to be attached to a more substantive updraft feature than the gust front doesn’t it?