A waterspout and a tornado are very similar. In fact, you might call a waterspout a tornado at sea. So let’s first see what a tornado is. A tornado is really a circular storm. It begins as a black, funnel- shaped cloud in a larger thunderstorm area. The funnel of the cloud is caused by the condensation of moisture through cooling of the air as it expands and is lifted upward.

A tornado may rotate either clockwise or counterclockwise. The width of a tornado (the Part that touches the ground) averages only about 275 to 365 metros? and its path is usually short, from just a few to about 50 miles (80 kilometers).

Inside the tornado (the vortex) it is believed that the speed of the revolving winds made be 500 miles (800 kilometers) an hour! Where a tornado touches the ground, tremendous damage can result. Buildings can be flattened, or blown into bits, or even moved for hundreds of metros.

Tornadoes (also known as twisters and cyclones) can occur in any season, though they are five times as numerous in spring and summer. They are more likely to occur in the day than at night.

In some cases, a waterspout may simply be a tornado that has formed over land and passed out to sea. But the more common type of waterspout develops over tropical and middle-latitude seas and lakes during the warm season. It starts right over the water, the funnel cloud forming from the base of cumulus clouds or cumulonimbus clouds.

The lower tip of the funnel cloud, as it gets near the surface of the water, first agitates, or stirs up, the sea’s surface into a cloud of spray. The funnel cloud dips into the center of this, then draws up a vortex spout of water. But the water that makes up the main part of the spout is always fresh, showing it is made up chiefly of rainwater.

A waterspout usually continues only a few minutes, and the effect is local. Most waterspouts occur over calm waters in places where the temperatures are high and thunderstorms are frequent.