News DetailPictures of a waterspout on Mobile Bay this morning!
Posted At: July 26, 2007 @ 1:53 PM
Posted By: Reed Timmer
Related Categories: Tornadoes
Here are pictures of a waterspout that formed over Mobile Bay this morning just north of Dauphin Island, AL, courtesy of Brian Jones, a local marine biologist.
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Nice narrow one!
Reed, if you have a bit time may you look at the situation in Germany this night? It looks very interesting. THANK YOU!
Here's a question...are waterspouts unique to coastal areas where water temperatures are warmer, or can they occur regardless of depth?
Waterspouts are so cool! Dunno why I like them so much..
Cool pics!! I love waterspouts.
That is why I no longer go deap sea fishing. My first trip out there were 3 water spouts and some really nasty storms. Lightning and boats......not much fun. In the first picture it looks awfully close to that boat!!!! Crazy stuff.
Deep not deap...... Sorry I was typing to fast.
Nice Tower shooting stright up right over Edina MN, about 10 miles SW of downtown Minneapolis... rapid virtical motion ahead of main line, temp 96, dewpoint 71, sunshine all day.. could get interesting.
Yeah Travis I've been watching that one from up here in Anoka. It looks like it could be THE storm in that line of cu towers. Going up like a rocket, looking good already on radar.
What the ----???? Is that big storm out over lake Michigan producing a couplet right now???? Looks kind of like it to me.
Reed can you see those from GR? I swear the big one out over the middle of the lake is producing something right now. Geez I need grlevel3.
OMG tornado out over the middle of lake Michigan right now. Gotta be with that couplet and check out the hook on that storm.
Andrew, I was wondering the same thing myself...NW of GR, about halfway across. It's persistent.
Reed, we could actually see some of this if it would just warm up a little.
Corey, it's a classic hook on it right now. No more couplet, but 10-15 minutes I would swear there was a spout down. You probably have access to better radar than I do, can you play the velocity loop and tell me what you see. It was intense.
Sorry I forgot to mention I was watching it for Green Bay radar.
It's the twin sisters over lake Michigan!! The northern one is going ape too!!
Anyone ever storm chase in a boat, lol.
Andrew, at 4:35 there's a VERY suspicious couplet on GB radar, and GR radar, which originally caught my eye when I came back from a shower, shows something interesting happening at that time too. I wish there was a way I could copy the images for you; I'm terrible at reading radar...I start an intro to Met class in 3 weeks that I really, really need!
Yeah that's right when I saw it.
And maybe I need to take one of those classes too. Cut down on my ranting on the blog here, lol. But I know what I saw and it looked good. Wonder if any boaters got scared out of their wits.
May not be over yet, the northern storm is trying to do it too.
Is there something in the water over there???? Haha.
Wow!! It got ugly Here For bit before it blew out over the lake. (Lake Superior). I thought it was gonna produce something little , but just some cool clouds and heavy wind for 10 minutes. We need this rain though!!
Hey Andrew and Corey.... I see the two storms you guys are talking about. They look very impressive on radar! I'm pretty sure they produced one or more water spouts... Agree??
Zach the northern storm hasn't done much yet, and you never know what they did unless someone was there watching, and since it was over water no one may ever know, but it looked good for a little bit. At least lots of rotation going on.
I agree Andrew...lol. Nobody knows for sure what they did, but they looked preety intense on radar for awhile and those couplets had to have produced something.
Well this will probally be my last post for the day, got a yard to mow and gotta pool to clean out. See ya'll later...lol.
Oops... Spelled pretty wrong
This is fun, I hope I'm not offending anyone by posting so much.... but.... Corey, check it out, the southern one is producing again! That sucker is getting closer to land... what is NOAA smoking why don't they tor warn that thing?? Or do they not tor warn stuff over water?????
Sorry, just got back from walking the dog. Andrew, check out the radar north of Muskegon at around 5:25...there should at the least be a severe warning for this area.
I don't know, they are professionals and I just watch radar for fun... but what the heck the couplet is even on the NOAA radar and there's boats roaming around out there...
I don't think there's any reason NWS should be tor-warning those storms over Lake Michigan. To me, the couplets on radar look pretty weak, and I'm sure the lake temperatures are quite cool, so it's likely the storms are elevated and have little to no surface-based instability to work with.
Also, it's important to note that the latest research has found that only about 25% of radar-detected mesocyclones actually produce tornadoes. Part of being a good NWS forecaster is determining when it is highly unlikely for a radar couplet to be producing a tornado and acting based on that knowledge, which helps reduce the number of false alarms. We still have a long way to go, though, as even though forecasters do not warn all couplets the false alarm rate for tornado warnings is quite high.
Don, I was actually referring to a land based couplet north of Muskegon that was apparent for about 10 minutes absent of any other real severe indicators. Like I said, not too good at spotting these things!
The cell near Flint is looking interesting as well...it made a nice right turn over the last several scans.
We might even get some rain here!
See you in a few hours Corey
We definitely need to get a tornadovideos.net boat so we can start chasing water spouts...they get them on a daily basis in the summer off the florida keys.
Hey Don,
Thanks. So it was just me. That's why they pay them the big bucks.
You and me both Andrew...if I were given the ability to issue warnings, the economy would grind to a sickening halt for 5 months every year.
I was really bummed that I never got to see a spout while in the keys...I was there for the winter, so while I'm not complaining about the climate at all, we didn't get very much action.
Reed, the band playing is hilarious, they do funk covers of Michael Jackson and Guns n Roses.
a boat would be cool reed...how bout a chat program? lol...just buggin:P.
Hey Don,
I take it from your post you might have something to do with NWS, lol. Hope you didn't think I was slamming NWS or our forecast/warning system. Just a dumb amateur who didn't know what he was seeing and popping off at the mouth. NWS does a spectacular job with everything they do and the guys who have to put up warnings might have the most thankless job on earth. If they warn something and nothing happens they get ridiculed and the other way around they get more of the same. Just wanted to clear the air on that one in case I ruffled any feathers.
Id rather have a warning put out then not. Because i dont what to be sitting in my living room look outside and see a tornado touchdown and have no time to get downstairs(or in some peoples case to get out and chase it) but ya id rather have a false alarm then no warning then theres a tornado without warning..
A Trough of low pressure over Alberta tomorrow and temps around 30C, cross your fingers
ya im a bit suspicious mike.
i was thinking suday/sudaynight....but it looks to be coming faster.
Hey!! if anything Ever comes near western Lake Superior, I'll try to help the site out. I have nice lil cabin cruiser that I pretty much live on this time of year, I would be more than honored to help you guys out!! Even though the lake is the biggest tornado killer there is!! I haven't seen a spout in 12+ years, but ya never know!
Andrew,
No, I'm not employed by the NWS, though I do have friends that work there. ;-) I'm just a meteorologist that loves weather, and wanted to clarify that NWS has a very difficult job, and to explain why they I thought they hadn't tor-warned on the activity over Lake Michigan (though they did issue a severe thunderstorm warning).
And no worries about ruffled feathers, I know how exciting it is to track the weather, I wig out about it all the time!
Looks like airmass super cells tomorrow, but Sunday looks good with a drop in temp by Tue.
Personally I'm of the opinion the more tornado warnings the better.. gives me more to do and just pushes the adrenaline factor up more when I'm chasing.
Reality of the situation is much like parts of the US Tornado Alley.. where people'll drive around during the tornado sirens and I've seen YouTube videos of florida where they're still delivering mail during tornado warnings.
I tried to get gas during a lull in the storm yesterday and found 3 out of the 4 stations I tried had actually shut down for the Severe T-storm warning... apparently more people actually pay attention to that up here... I, on the other hand, have been quite stupid and refueled an aircraft on a tarmac during a thunderstorm (Looks around sheepishly)
Nice pics!! Waterspouts are awesome!!
Reed...is it okay if i e-mail you about a serious issue? Please respond ASAP! Thanks.
Hey just want to say that I think your site it brilliant, I live in the uk so I have very boring weather (mostly rain) and recently had a thunderstorm and a bolt of lightening came to close for my liking lol, so was checking out severe weather sites and came across yours and I check it everyday now!
Hi everyone, I just got in from outside and I have to admit it feels like early fall out there!! Anyway the weather today is going to be... Well you guessed it hot and BORING!! But I am watching the weekend into early next week and it looks pretty interesting.
No problem Jon!
Thanks Gemma! Where in the UK are you? I studied in Reading for a year.
Ow.
I live in London Reed, but originally from the west midlands lol. I've always wanted to go on a storm chasing holiday, might go next year but need to start saving first!
Thanks for posting my pics, Reed. Keep up the adrenalized work!
Brian, awesome pics. Nice work! How close was that fishing boat to the spout? That would be too close for comfort for me. I can handle a twister on land, on water would be totally freaky. lol.
AJ D,
Zooming in on the original shot, it looked like the boat was between us and the spout, but definitely not by much. I bet their pulse was racing! I've been 100 feet from a much smaller one, and that was exciting enough.
....and thanks for the kudos. Just the reason why I invested in a better lens- getting those serendipitous shots when I can.