Captured Waterspout Offshore Sanibel Island FL Pictures

October 12, 2009 – Sunday morning a water spout formed about 6 miles due south of Sanibel Island, Florida. Around 9:30am, a developing heavy shower was slowly moving west-northwest over the very warm Gulf waters offshore Southwest Florida. Shortly after a waterspout organized under the dark rain free base of the cell, with a visible funnel about halfway to the water surface. There was a surface circulation and spray ring visible in the pictures after having to enhance the contrast.

Further east over the interior Southern Florida peninsula, they were burning sugarcane like they do every October for harvesting. The easterly flow made for a hazy morning over the eastern Gulf waters, also making it harder to make out if the funnel was truly reaching the surface. From the visible eye, it was easier to see that indeed it was on the water and producing a spray ring. After messing around with the contrast levels in the digital pictures here, you can make out the spray below and to the right of the funnel / spout.

The duration of the water spout was about 7 minutes, at least from the first time I took notice of it, as I was packing up the car after our week long vacation on Sanibel Island. It made for a nice weather lover departing gift for me, after all the other outstanding nature photography I was able to capture throughout the week on the island.

Update – 10/13/09 - I want to thank Daniel Noah, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at The National Weather Service in Tampa Bay. Daniel sent me a archived radar image of the small cell. Below you can see truly how small this little shower was that produced the waterspout. Looking at the image also, I think it might have been further south than 6 miles from Sanibel. Again, thanks to Daniel for the update, and he also noted that the waterspout will be added to storm data.

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Lake Okeechobee Water Spout and Gustnadoes Video
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Lake Okeechobee Florida Water Spout and Gustnadoes Video

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
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Pompano Beach Florida Water Spout Pictures

It was one of those lucky days where you just happen to come across a water spout when you not even in chase mode. Early this morning Kersten and I headed south from Lake Okeechobee to Broward County. I had a lab appointment for UM in Pompano Beach, Florida at 8am, and I was all wrapped up by 8:30am.

We decided to head south and east to make a surprise visit at my aunt’s house since she lives about 10 minutes away. On our way we’re driving south on Powerline Rd and under this very small convergence boundary that extended northwest to southeast towards Pompano Beach. I noted to Kersten that if this built a little more easterly out over the ocean we just might see a distant water spout. 10 minutes later deep in morning South Florida traffic, I glance over to my left only to see a translucent funnel cloud extended halfway towards the water. I luckily brought my camera and something told me that morning just to bring it along. I quickly grabbed it and began to shoot as I’m telling Kersten to drive east towards the beach.

There was no going anywhere fast as traffic was slow and still nearing the end of rush hour. As Chris Collura would say, a fellow Chaser friend, “ Great! Look at all those brake lights”. So I continued to take pictures between buildings, power poles, tree’s and anything else that just seemed to want to get in my way. We finally we reach the Pier at Pompano Beach only to see that convergence boundary had weakened significantly and the spout dissipated. I did asked the local lifeguard if the water spout was at the surface and he did say there was a circulation at the ocean surface with mist. Cool!

It was a nice treat for us during this long, and I mean long drought here in South Florida. It was nice to see a little convection and something rotating finally, because there has been little action in Florida since early last Fall. We made our stops, had lunch and then headed home. A interesting morning indeed, and I’m sure glad I had the urge to grab my cam before leaving the house. LOL!

Related Post Video: Lake Okeechobee Waterspout and Gustnadoes Video - As seen on The Weather Channel 6/23 – 6/24/2009
Captured Waterspout Sanibel Island Florida Pictures - 10/11/09