[Sandlapper]

Beautiful but deadly.....What I'm amazed with is the fact that the water is so quiet, I would have thought the winds would have been high?

Did any of you Tampa residents see this?

http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2013/07/10/spectacular-waterspout-in-tampa-bay-video/

some pics
http://s934.photobucket.com/user/tannybogus/media/18ccc79eb4f1fc9fc678e580603dc3cd.jpg.html
http://www.blogcdn.com/weather.aol.com/media/2013/07/waterspoutflorida.jpeg?5191

 

[DanDiver]

That is some pretty spectacular video and yes, waterspouts are pretty common (not that big though) around the Tampa Bay / Gulf of mexico area. I've seen them from land and boat. We once saw three at the same time out in the Gulf, scattered around, just a few miles from shore a while back in my tiny 22 foot boat. We normally just watch or move away.

They are pretty predictable and if you see a certain type of thunderstorm developing, it's not too unusual. They generally break up as soon as they hit land.

In the late 70's I saw one move from about a mile offshore, hit land and then break up on US 19, a major North South highway, not far from where Dave Dragon lives, just North of Tampa. It literally dropped tons of water on the highway and moved vehicles..

They rarely do damage and like I said, it's common to see them just pop out of the bottom of an isolated thunderstorm. I think I read someplace where they actually grow from the water and go up, but they look to build from the top down. They are fun to watch.

 

[SilverBuffalo]

Nice video sent on to my friends,
like Dan I've seen water spouts out on the water several times,

I remember once I was 20 miles out and saw three of them,
We actually had to go further offshore to let the storm pass before we could come back in.

Another time one formed while I still had divers in the water so I couldn't move,
we got outta there fast once they surfaced.