Care to dance? Twin waterspouts from Italy today via @ReteMeteoAmator. pic.twitter.com/DgTyykCNvo — Anthony Sagliani (@anthonywx) November 6, 2014
I spotted this spectacular image on Twitter today and had to share it. You're looking at twin waterspouts off the coast of Italy.
Source: Wikimedia Commons A waterspout is a rapidly rotating column of air that stretches from the base of a cumulus cloud down to a body of water. Winds can vary between about 40 miles per hour, or gale force, to 80 mph or more, which is hurricane force. Click on the thumbnail at right for a photo showing three waterspouts seen from the beach at Kijkduin near The Hague in the Netherlands August 27, 2006. I don't know whether the duo off Italy were true tornadic waterspouts, which are tornados over the water and are typically bigger and much more intense than non-tornadic waterspouts. But either way, it's an astonishing occurrence of nature.