Lake Okeechobee Florida Water Spout and Gustnadoes Video
June 23, 2009 by Jeff Gammons
Filed under Featured, South Florida, Top Stories
June 23, 2009 – Severe thunderstorm complex moves over Lake Okeechobee, FL and produces a Water Spout with several Gustnadoes as well. A combination of the west Florida coast sea breeze, and a outflow boundary set off a large severe thunderstorm complex over Central Florida in the early afternoon. This convective system raced southeastward towards southern Florida, and moved over the great Lake Okeechobee region.
A water spout developed on the leading edge of the gust front tucked in on the west side where there was still some decent inflow to the line of strong storms. As seen in the following video, there is a funnel cloud at cloud base, with a medium size circulation on the lake surface tracking southeast. In the foreground of the water spout video, you see several Gustnadoes racing south. The spout and funnel became hard to follow as rain curtains wrapped around and moved south with the complex of storms.
After the storm moved over my location on the northeast shore of Lake Okeechobee, I encountered strong straight-line winds maybe near 50mph, with pea size hail. Lightning was also present, but remain mostly over the smooth waters of the lake. All in all, a very interesting afternoon on Florida largest lake.
Dr Greg Forbes from The Weather Channel, analyzes waterspout
On the evening of June 23, 2009, Dr Greg Forbes from The Weather Channel, analyzed My Lake Okeechobee, Florida waterspout video shot earlier in the day. He get’s pretty excited over the several circulations on the water surface, and gives his view on how he thinks the setup for the waterspouts developed.
Similar Waterpout Posts:
Captured Waterspout Offshore Sanibel Island Florida Pictures
Pompano Beach Florida Waterspout Pictures
Amazing work there Jeff, just saw the vid on weather channel and knew it was yours… really no spouts here in the Keys as we have had the pesky NW flow for couple of weeks now….
I appreciate that Martin. I still want to get down to the Keys in July for a week to get in some spout chasing. Saw some of your stuff earlier this year that was very nice.
On the lake! I hear of them over the ocean but the lake. How cool! Good work and saw it on weather channel.
Very cool Jeff! Just saw it on TWC. Have a question, why is there no sound on vid, on website? Wanted to see the whole vid, not just TWC portion, but there is no sound.
Anyway, great job!
Saw it on weather channel!!!!!!!! Could hear your voice in background! Great timing and very interesting……
Thanks for the comments everyone!
I just added Dr Greg Forbes from The Weather Channel, talking about myy Lake Okeechobee, Florida waterspout video shot yesterday.
Christine – Yeah there is video. Make sure the sound bar in the player is up, or maybe you need the latest free flash player upgrade. Let me know!
Thanks for adding that.
Awesome nab, Jeff! When I saw it this morning, I knew it had to be yours. How
is that?!
Congrats!
Amazing video Jeff..great work! I’ll be down there early next month.
Thanks Jenn! Yeah it’s pretty cool. LOL!
Cookeville – Thanks! Where you headed in FL next month? Chasing or fam/business?
Just added a frame grab of a sweet cloud-to-ground lightning strike left of the waterspouts spray ring.
Great video, Jeff. Really nice illustration of the vortices.
I thought of something: you could be the first to intentionally drive (sail?) into waterspouts! Maybe a little camo-colored bass boat? The Spout Attack Vehicle!
A
Thanks, Amos! LMAO! Bass boat attack vehicle! Yeah, maybe start some Spout chasing tours on the lake too? Glad you enjoyed the video. I’ll give you a call in the next week or so, I know you just got in from travels.
Great video. One question did you come up with the term gustnadoes yourself? I have never heard of it I thought It was cute. But explain it to me if you would. I am a storm freak I love it when it storms I thought I was the only one in Okeechobee.
Hi cshell. No the Gustnado term is something that is common in the Storm Chaser community. You can read more about them at this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustnado
Are you located in Okeechobee?
Damn good shot Jeff. Yeah I can see Dr. Forbes getting all worked up about this one.
Thanks, Jason. A very interesting setup that afternoon over the lake.
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