: Cliff Mass Weather Blog Monday, October 13, 2014
First Tornado Warning Here in 17 Years
On Saturday around noon, several of you were startled to get a tornado warning on your smartphones.
The cause: a waterspout that developed near Anderson Island in the southern
Sound and which remained intact for about a half-hour. Here are some pics I
found on the KOMO and KING-5 web sites. An extremely well-formed funnel and
you can see from the first that the winds reached the surface, kicking up lots
of spray. Beautiful pictures:
Waterspouts are the weaker cousins of the strong
tornadoes one finds over the Midwest U.S.
According to the official Storm
Prediction Center definition:
A waterspout is a tornado over
water--usually meaning non-supercell tornadoes over water. Waterspouts are
common along the southeast U. S. coast and can happen over seas, bays and lakes worldwide. Although waterspouts
are always tornadoes by definition; they don't officially count in tornado
records unless they hit land. They are smaller and weaker than the most intense
Great Plains tornadoes, but still can be quite dangerous. Waterspouts
can overturn boats, damage larger ships, do significant damage when hitting
land, and kill people.
This
waterspot, and virtually all of our waterspouts/tornadoes around here, are
associated with non-supercell thunderstorms. Supercells are the big Kahunas of
the thunderstorm world with very high tops (reaching 40-60K ft), intense rain,
hail, and most importantly rotation.
This
waterspout came out of a relatively wimpy NW thunderstorm.
Impressive for around here. But equally strong thunderstorms were hitting in the north Sound with no waterspouts. No sign of any hooked echoes...which indicate supercell storms.
Impressive for around here. But equally strong thunderstorms were hitting in the north Sound with no waterspouts. No sign of any hooked echoes...which indicate supercell storms.
