Waterspout gives awed spectators a big thrill

"This thing was enormous. It looked like it was going to eat downtown Clearwater," one says.

By JANE MEINHARDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 10, 1999

CLEARWATER -- Nature put on a powerful show Friday as a gigantic waterspout sashayed along Clearwater's waterfront, stopping people in their tracks as it danced for nearly five minutes.

Lunch-hour traffic halted all over the city as people marveled at the roiling twister. People poured from office buildings and cars stopped and parked on the Memorial Causeway Bridge, along the causeway and in streets at the waterfront.

With lightning flashing around it, the waterspout formed in Clearwater Harbor about 12:55 p.m. and blossomed, growing high and wide enough to be visible as far east as U.S. 19. It never touched land or caused any damage in its brief but spectacular life.

"I grew up here, and that was the biggest waterspout I've ever seen," said Will Davis, Pinellas County environmental management director. "This thing was enormous. It looked like it was going to eat downtown Clearwater."

Clearwater's waterspout was one of several dramatic weather events around west central Florida on Friday afternoon when two weather systems collided, producing hail, strong winds and several tornado sightings.

In Ellenton, a tornado touched down at Blackburn Elementary School, yanking siding and awnings off the building. About 30 children attending a YMCA day camp and five teachers were inside, but no one was hurt. The same funnel cloud is being blamed for damaging several homes and a carport in a mobile home park across the street.

"It was very scary," art teacher Debbie Spencer said. "We saw it coming, and we told all the kids to get into closets. I guess you can never practice enough for this kind of thing."

Several other tornadoes were reported in Manatee County, forecasters said, but those did not cause any damage.

For all of the drama outside, officials said there was very little damage around Tampa Bay -- just some hail, lots of rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph in some places.

"We haven't had any injuries reported in any of these storms," said Eric Oglesby, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Ruskin, whose computers, radar and weather radio system were damaged when lightning struck the building.

In Pinellas County, as a precaution, authorities cleared Clearwater Beach temporarily when the waterspout began forming just south of the Memorial Causeway. Clouds twisted and flowed upward, forming a distinct funnel shape.

"You could actually see the vortex around it," said Charlie Flowers, Clearwater's deputy fire chief. "It was a perfect waterspout from beginning to end."

The waterspout drifted gradually south along the Intracoastal Waterway, just a few hundred yards off the shoreline. Crowds of people lined the shore, gasping in wonder at its size and proximity.

As it hovered over the waterway near Belleair, the waterspout twisted apart in the middle. The top dissipated as the bottom swirled around and went ashore in a huge gust of wind.

A frequent sight in the Gulf of Mexico and tropical waters during the summer, a waterspout forms when a severe thunderstorm develops.
Sandford Garrard, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the size and duration of Friday's waterspout were somewhat unusual. He estimated that it was traveling only about 5 mph.

"Big ones can occur, but it's certainly not usual for them to last that long," he said. "Waterspouts are of the same family as tornadoes, although they are less severe and form from less severe thunderstorms."

Waterspouts form from the water up to clouds, Garrard said, with winds reaching 45 to 50 mph. The speed of a waterspout varies, but it can travel as fast as 30 mph.

The Coast Guard station at Sand Key got calls from frightened boaters, but nothing serious was reported. Petty Officer Tim Kearns said rescue crews had to maneuver around the waterspout to respond to calls.

"We were trying to get around it, and it didn't know where it wanted to go," Kearns said. "We hear about them, and we've kind of seen them from far, far away, but this one was right here in our back yard."

For the weekend, forecasters are predicting partly cloudy skies today, high temperatures near 90 and a 50 percent chance of afternoon showers. Sunday will be about the same, but with a 40 percent chance of rain.

Though the forecast sounds a bit gloomy, weather experts doubt that Friday's drama will play out again.

"Don't expect it," Oglesby said.

-- Times staff writers Edie Gross and Kelly Ryan contributed to this story, which also contains information from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

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