Michael Thompson
EF3
The 11th February saw a waterspout about 3 miles from my home. I had been out looking for waterspouts as I sensed that conditions were favourable. I spotted this one about 15 mins earlier than the video whilst it was still a long way offshore. Unfortunately I was held up at at a train crossing and therefore could not make it to a vantage point in time.
The video is here, sorry it is not really that exciting
http://ozthunder.com/video/waters.wmv
Australian severe weather have some pictures that do the waterspout justice.
http://www.australiasevereweather.com.au/tornado.htm
The previous evening I was out taking some lightning shots...............
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Fchase%2F100207d_t.jpg&hash=ab70168f4742202893884757182d1ec2)
....................when just a little further up the line I spotted ......
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Fchase%2F100207e_t.jpg&hash=4edb0cd222e1b77b9bc70805a84e9616)
It perisited for about 3 perhaps 4 mins, just before it dissappeared it looked like....
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Fchase%2F100207f_t.jpg&hash=68aecb78bb84aa029b90142a5196f3c2)
The jury is out, I am certainly not making any call on this one, with an almost pure saturated atmosphere, any sort of vortice condenses, but the persistance and isolation has me thinking. The conditions at the time was an obvious thunderstorm given the lightning. Definately NOT a supercell. The storm was actually a rare setup, being part of a 150 mile long convergance line of storms, but a thin one. Storms trained down the line constantly from about 6pm to 4am. The convergance line was parallel the coast, but about 10 miles inland. I received only 1 inch of rain, whilst in the same period the hills just behing the line in the pictures goy betwen 4-6 ins.
Does anybody wish to offer an educated opinion ?
![water1.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Fchase%2Fwater1.jpg&hash=c427777374abd15591c6f247a64dd581)
The video is here, sorry it is not really that exciting
http://ozthunder.com/video/waters.wmv
Australian severe weather have some pictures that do the waterspout justice.
http://www.australiasevereweather.com.au/tornado.htm
The previous evening I was out taking some lightning shots...............
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Fchase%2F100207d_t.jpg&hash=ab70168f4742202893884757182d1ec2)
....................when just a little further up the line I spotted ......
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Fchase%2F100207e_t.jpg&hash=4edb0cd222e1b77b9bc70805a84e9616)
It perisited for about 3 perhaps 4 mins, just before it dissappeared it looked like....
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Fchase%2F100207f_t.jpg&hash=68aecb78bb84aa029b90142a5196f3c2)
The jury is out, I am certainly not making any call on this one, with an almost pure saturated atmosphere, any sort of vortice condenses, but the persistance and isolation has me thinking. The conditions at the time was an obvious thunderstorm given the lightning. Definately NOT a supercell. The storm was actually a rare setup, being part of a 150 mile long convergance line of storms, but a thin one. Storms trained down the line constantly from about 6pm to 4am. The convergance line was parallel the coast, but about 10 miles inland. I received only 1 inch of rain, whilst in the same period the hills just behing the line in the pictures goy betwen 4-6 ins.
Does anybody wish to offer an educated opinion ?