This waterspout photographed by Jacqueline Kucharchukn formed off shore near the Peninsula Resort last week.
Georgina
August 13, 2008 07:58 PM
By: John Slykhuis
A pair of waterspouts, a rare weather phenomenon on Lake Simcoe, fascinated some and frightened others who witnessed them last Thursday afternoon near Holmes Point.
Eyewitness Jacqueline Kucharchuk of the Peninsula Resort snapped two quick photographs of the second, larger waterspout on her cellular phone as it swirled over the water between the resort and Duclos Point.
The first, described as a “rope” formed and dissipated further out in the lake.
“I didn’t see the first one from the beginning, it was like a rope, a stringy thing going all over the place.” she said. “A couple of minutes later, the second one formed right in our bay.
“We had two campers in the park and we were concerned for their safety. I was trying to get them to get out of their little tents and into the restaurant. I kept on taking a look at it. I had my phone with me and snapped a couple of (photographs).”
There was no sound, no lightning and thunder, just an eerie silence.
Mrs. Kucharchuk got the campers to safety in the restaurant and then it started to rain.
“It had been a beautiful day all day, with two quick showers,” she said. “It was unbelievable. You would never have thought that day it would have happened.”
As she attended to her father-in-law, the waterspout moved off towards Holmes Point, dumping a deluge of water on the resort as it passed.
“I wanted to stay and watch it. You hear about these storm chasers on TV and you think what idiots, but this was absolutely phenomenal. I didn’t feel we were in a lot of danger, because it wasn’t coming right for us.”
She was grateful the mass carp die-off had ended or else the water falling on shore could have been accompanied by dead carp.
Her husband Jerry, who has lived at the resort since he was a child, said he’d never seen anything like it.
Funnel clouds were also reported above land near Pefferlaw and Sunderland, but none are reported to have touched down.
Environment Canada reported the funnel clouds were the “cold” variety caused by a combination of warm air at the surface and cold air aloft.
These little twisters are the weakest on the 0-5 Fujita scale that measures the strength of tornadoes.
Typically, there are no thunderstorms associated with waterspouts.
As the waterspout strengthens, the funnel will extend downwards towards the water.
The waterspout reaches its mature stage when the funnel touches the water surface.
Rene Heroux, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, told The Advocate a waterspout, which looks like a tornado, but weaker, is a rotating column of air mixed with water that forms over the surface of the water during unstable conditions when cool air moves over relatively warmer water.
“They are usually very brief, then it goes and often then another will form nearby,” he said.
The wind speed in these waterspouts is typically 50 and 80 kilometres per hour, he added.
In Canada, they are most frequently sighted during September on the Great Lakes.
The unstable weather pattern this week is favourable for waterspout formation, he said.
“Keep your eyes open, you might be lucky and see one.”