Possible waterspout?

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

We had a nasty (a/k/a awesome) storm blow through here on Long Island yesterday. It had heavy visible rotation but because I was at work, I was not able to photograph anything. A friend of mine posted a couple of photos on Facebook that she took on the bay in the town of Patchogue. She's not a chaser but was just taking photos of the clouds.

As I was looking through the photos, I noticed a peculiar feature in two of the thirteen photos. Hmm. What is that in the distance?

My assumption is that she captured a waterspout and she didn't even realize it.

I've applied contrast and I'm posting the photos with her permission (credit: Andrea Arnold). I would love any feedback about these photos that people can provide. The photographer is looking southeast in one photo and south in the other. Thanks...Melanie

 

[Bob Hartig]

The feature certainly looks like it could have been a waterspout. The second shot also shows what appears to be a small wall cloud and maybe a rainy RFD. However, I'm puzzled by what appears to be an arcus cloud directly in front of these features. The storm is to my south/southeast, but is it moving away from me or toward me? It seems oddly flipflopped. It would be helpful to see a shot or two showing the storm's overall structure.

 

[Jeremy Perez]

Hi Melanie, it looks really convincing at first glance, but I think it's dust on the camera sensor--it's a little more apparent on the 2nd image. To confirm, I laid both images on layers in Photoshop, and when flicking the top layer on and off, the vertical structure is in the same spot and same shape on both images (attached a side-by-side enlargement). You might be able to confirm by looking just right of center on any other vertical shots in the set. Nice storm/arcus shots, nonetheless!

 

[Jeff Duda]

Hi Melanie, it looks really convincing at first glance, but I think it's dust on the camera sensor--it's a little more apparent on the 2nd image. To confirm, I laid both images on layers in Photoshop, and when flicking the top layer on and off, the vertical structure is in the same spot and same shape on both images (attached a side-by-side enlargement). You might be able to confirm by looking just right of center on any other vertical shots in the set. Nice storm/arcus shots, nonetheless!

There are only two unique images, Jeremy. Each pair is the original and a contrast enhanced image. Thus the features should perfectly lie on top of each other. It doesn't really show that there's dust on the sensor. You'd have to compare the two sets together to determine that.

 

[Jeremy Perez]

Hi Jeff, sorry, I should have been more careful in describing what I compared. I only compared the high contrast version of each pair (i.e. I compared image #2 and #4 of the posted images).

 

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

I'm attaching two more photos taken in the same time period as the other two. I don't see the anomaly on the other two photos. As for the direction that the photos were taken from, it's been a long time since I've been to that pier, so I might be off on that. But I'm pretty sure that the two new photos are shot to the south and the second to the southeast. But I could be totally turned around on this, honestly. If you google 'Sandspit Marina Patchogue' you can bring up a satellite view. If someone can figure out the direction from that, you get a gold star.

Thanks for everyone's help!


EDIT: Ugh. Now I think the last photo is to the west. Hmm...

 

[Dan Robinson]

This looks like sensor dust/hair - on the next-to-last picture there, you can see part of it just above the treeline in the same location of the other images. To confirm it, take a picture of something bright (blue sky, white wall) at an F11 aperture. If it's on the sensor, it wil show up there too.

 

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

This looks like sensor dust/hair - on the next-to-last picture there, you can see part of it just above the treeline in the same location of the other images. To confirm it, take a picture of something bright (blue sky, white wall) at an F11 aperture. If it's on the sensor, it wil show up there too.

These are not my photos, but you may be right. I'll have to check her other photos and go from there. Thanks.

 

[Joshua Nall]

You may be able to see it there in the water in the last picture also. It's horizontal just up and to the left of the M. It certianly did look like a spout in the first couple photos though.

 

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

Yes, Joshua, I believe you're right. I think I need to tell her to clean her lens, lol. Bummer! Well, thanks to everyone for helping to solve the mystery. Mystery solved!