Huge Water Spout on St Johns at 5 PM

[fatcat]

impressive photos.

[Ocklawaha]

Any NWS types on here? What was the strongest F rating? Looked like it might have held a 1 for a short time. Also are the tracks here typically multi-directional? In "Tornado Alley" the track is nearly ALWAYS from Southwest to Northeast, making for easy tracking and interception easy (with consideration given for some ground wobbles).

OCKLAWAHA

[reednavy]

Any NWS types on here? What was the strongest F rating? Looked like it might have held a 1 for a short time. Also are the tracks here typically multi-directional? In "Tornado Alley" the track is nearly ALWAYS from Southwest to Northeast, making for easy tracking and interception easy (with consideration given for some ground wobbles).

OCKLAWAHA

This did not produce any damage, and did not cross over land, officially, so no rating. HOWEVER, I have found a video that may prove otherwise and have called the NWS to report this, and the meteorologist on duty agrees with me that this was a small EF-0 for a few blocks before dissipation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Efi8LwUfs

[BridgeTroll]

Great Link

[billy]

Looks like it was headed to the Florida Yacht Club for a cocktail.

That thing's about fifty times larger than any waterspout I've ever seen.

[heights unknown]

Dramatic and impressive photos.  Did it wash ashore and was there any damage?  Appears it stayed out on the river (thank God) and was stronger when it first started than the end.  Reminds me of a needle on a tone arm spinning on a record.

Heights Unknown

[heights unknown]

Spectacular and "God Awesome" video. Was there any hail? Usually there's hail along with catastrophic winds in a tornado.  It appears that it did not touch down all the way, if it had, the house the Videographers of the video were living in and other area property would have suffered more tremendous and/or catastrophic damage.  Good thing it didn't touch down all the way, but it came down far enough.  Anyone knows how strong the winds were in the area of the tornado?  I know it was an EF-0 but did NWS give any wind measurements and what was the extent of the damge?

[reednavy]

Size of the funnel doesn't always mean it is weak. Just look up the Eli, Manitoba tornado. It was small, but an EF-5. This waterspout, at most intense, was probably no more than 70mph. It had a broad area of relatively friction free winds to feed from, and this is how most waterspouts start. If this had happened over land, nothing more than a funnel would've happened because waterspouts such as this usually need a large area of relatively no interaction with trees or structures to get it's windfield into a concentrated location. In Florida, especially this time of year, hail larger than nickels is rare because it is relatively warm throughout the atmosphere from surface to at least 15,000 ft and the freezing level is quite high.

Based on video, it certainly does appear the remnant circulation did make it ashore near St. Vincent's and travelled up Barrs St, cross Oak St, and dissipated somewhere about 2-4 blocks afetr that. Max winds were probably no more than 50mph, which is why only leaves, loose limbs, and trash went airborne in the video. This qualifies as no visible damage and if it is proven to be a tornado, it will be EF-0. Now, it will be up the 2nd in command at the NWS to determin if it is given such, but I see no reasonable doubt that this wasn't a tornado, very weak, but a tornado none the less.

There have been cases of stronger waterspouts coming ashore and doing a bit of damage. Look up the Cape Coral tornado from 2007.

[scaleybark]

I saw this waterspout.  It was pretty awesome.

I first noticed it when a co-worker in our office building told everybody to look at the "huge" waterspout.  At first, I thought he was making a joke, because the weather was partly cloudy, with no lightning, thunder, or rain.  Everyone watched the waterspout slowly cross the river, changing shape from a slow moving stovepipe to a zigzagging rope.  It was weakening when it came ashore in Riverside, but it became a rather impressive looking funnel cloud after it came inland.  We watched it move north of to the I10/I95 interchange before the downpour obscured it.

On strange thing about this storm was that there was no storm when the waterspout first formed.  There were clouds, but no lightning or thunder.  It almost seems as if the waterspout formed the storm, instead of the storm forming the waterspout.  After it came ashore, the lightning became intense, striking constantly all around the funnel.  When the downpour obscured the funnel, you could guess where the funnel was by the location of the lightning.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

That is the best video I've seen of that thing! 
All I got was a cell phone snippet while driving down 17 going home. I was around San Juan when everybody just slowed down and looked to their left to take pictures. Just amazing.

My hubby said the Avenues Mall office made everybody go down to the first floor when they got a Tornado warning. Several were standing down by the center dome area with all those glass skylights... so he took his store staff and a few customers into the back stairway corridors to be safe instead.

[Lunican]

http://www.youtube.com/v/T9Efi8LwUfs&hl=en&fs=1&

[fsujax]

This has officially been classified as a tornado. It was rated an EF0. However, I lost power for 5hrs in Springfield because of this storm.

[CMG22]

Everyone is talking about the lack of significant weather before this waterspout was spotted.  I had an even more bizarre experience last summer while dining in St. Augustine.  It was a clear day with just a few cumulus clouds I'd estimate 4,000 feet.  My friend said, "What is that?"  Sure enough, it was a waterspout on the ocean.

I have taken a few meteorology classes and have a commercial pilots license.  I never knew they could occur in such good conditions.  Anyone know anything more about these?

[BridgeTroll]

There is no huge mystery.  It was an isolated, intense yet rather small (in area) thunderstorm.  The thunderstorm grew very quickly spawning a small tornado.  I was downtown while the waterspout was over the water and we had significant rain, lightning and thunder.  I have no doubt that many who watched the storm from afar were in clear sky, sunny and hot conditions.

[lindab]

There was some minor damage on Stockton and Herschel near our house.  This amazing video lets you look inside the water spout (twister).
http://www.news4jax.com/video/19890325/