Keys Waterspouts

Florida Keys waterspouts are a common occurrence during the summer and have been pretty well documented throughout the Keys. The waterspout is in the same family class as the tornado but less destructive than it's predecessor. Florida Keys classic waterspouts form mostly from dark flat base cumulus congestus(towering cumulus) clouds during the morning and early afternoon with light to calm prevailing winds. Often there maybe more than one waterspout forming under the same cloud. To the untrained eye many people will sometimes never realize that an innocent looking towering cumulus cloud can spawn a waterspout. Mostly invisible at first in mid air but spiraling on the ocean surface you can observe its counter clockwise rotation and water being sprayed up and around, this is the first sign of the beginning life cycle of a waterspout. As the waterspout matures condensation usually takes place and the funnel becomes visible all the way down to the ocean's surface where salt water is being sucked up and sprayed around. It's life cycle is usually less than 30 minutes, it's direction and speed of movement are quite erratic and sometimes they just remain stationary. In meteorology we call this a short lived waterspout or a fair weather waterspout. Their wind intensity usually less than 80 mph but when they do come onshore over sections of the Keys you will immediately notice an abrupt increase in the winds and at least very windy conditions for a short while. Light damage will usually occur in it's wake but nonetheless damage is damage with tree limbs down, garbage containers tossed around and even sometimes power cables snapped and hanging loosely. So the next time you see an innocent nice looking tall cumulus cloud over the water with those prevailing conditions calm to light winds rest assure that this may not be the cloud that makes your summer weekend a picture perfect one.

See link on waterspouts:

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/waterspout.html