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May 25, 2007 9:40 PM   Subscribe

This is not your regular twister. The strange weather formation we saw yesterday off Singapore's coasts (YouTube) was a waterspout (wiki), a water-based tornado that occurs usually in tropical areas, Florida Keys (great pic!), for example. The last tornado that happened in Singapore was in 1950.
posted by the cydonian (20 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
May or may not be the best of the web, but a bit of an weather-based excitement for your reading pleasure on a lazy Saturday morning. :-)
posted by the cydonian at 9:41 PM on May 25, 2007


Caught one off southern Thailand in 2000. Unfortunately, caught it with a camera I bought in Bangkok and which did not work. At all. So three weeks of pictures and one waterspout later, all I had was the memory.

Still, very, very cool.
posted by dreamsign at 9:51 PM on May 25, 2007


Twisters of all shapes, sizes, and concentrations are always worthy. They are fascinating. Thanks.
posted by davidmsc at 10:00 PM on May 25, 2007


Heh. I just saw that on the (otherwise largely horrible) site that the awesome Sushi video was on.

Not quite teh destruction i;d expected, but If I was in a ship and something like that was nexct to it I'd shit myself. And the pan up to the sky is super ominous.
posted by Artw at 10:26 PM on May 25, 2007


wow, the cydonian, glad you're ok. Scary. Waterspout off the British coast coming to land.
posted by nickyskye at 10:59 PM on May 25, 2007


That's some crazy weather lah!
posted by miss lynnster at 11:06 PM on May 25, 2007


BTW, I was just in Oklahoma for the first time (during tornado season) so I'm a lot more aware of tornadoes now than I was a month ago. They're pretty freaky. I think I may prefer earthquakes in some ways.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:09 PM on May 25, 2007


After reading the first sentence I was thinking of something like this. (NSFW)
posted by Citizen Premier at 11:46 PM on May 25, 2007


My 9yo is going to go nuts when I show him this in the morning. He feels the same way about tornado's as davidmsc does.

Thanks
posted by LadyBonita at 1:16 AM on May 26, 2007


I'm fascinated by the seeming lack of fear of the people watching this. I was very programed as a kid that a tornado was something that required I hide, in fear. Watching tornado videos has convinced me that maybe it isn't quite that bad, provided it isn't coming my way.
posted by Goofyy at 3:26 AM on May 26, 2007


That was a a weather-based excitement, not an weather-based excitement. I wont commit seppuku just as yet though.

DreamSign: Haha, the same waters as that one. :-) It's a wonder, though, that there was no destruction because of this waterspout; the Straits of Malacca see a LOT of traffic, in certain places it's coast-to-coast.

nickyskye: Appreciate the concern ;-D , but I understand these waterspouts usually don't hit the coast; apparently, they taper off as they approach land. I've seen one last year too, at about the same time in fact.

Goofyy: Perhaps because they dont usually make it to the coast, as I said.
posted by the cydonian at 3:42 AM on May 26, 2007


Beautiful. And YouTube, doing its thing to pull in others like it, wow, now I know where those missing half hours go. Thanks for sharing this it's really cool.
posted by holycola at 7:33 AM on May 26, 2007


...usually in tropical areas...

Several years ago, I watched one for several minutes in Lake Erie, off the coast of Cleveland, Ohio.
posted by jaronson at 7:55 AM on May 26, 2007


There was one off the coast of Brighton a few years back.
posted by Artw at 8:14 AM on May 26, 2007


A Seattle tornado some years back.
posted by Tube at 8:32 AM on May 26, 2007




Saw a waterspout while on vacation off the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We got some images of it on film - kind of far-off, but photos nonetheless. The weirdest thing was watching the seagulls that came too close getting sucked up and tossed out the top. It was fascinating more than it was scary...
posted by caution live frogs at 3:18 PM on May 26, 2007


Lucky buggers! i'll likely never see a waterspout. [pouts]
posted by five fresh fish at 5:24 PM on May 26, 2007


Saw one hithering and thithering across Adelaide Airport (South Australia). Wild!
posted by Wolof at 7:29 PM on May 26, 2007


cydonian -- the one I saw actually accompanied the back wall of the eye of a huge hurricaine we were in. Didn't know it at the time. Just knew we had a freakishly sunny morning after a day and a half of terrible storm. Having breakfast on the beach, look up, sunny sky. Look up again and there's this HUGE wall of black coming. And waves at the forefront doing strange things. Very strange... *running for camera* Lasted about 5 minutes. Then the storm hit again. Hard.

Luckily no boats out as people were still picking up after the damage of the previous couple of days. Unluckily we hadn't seen supplies in a couple of days, and wouldn't.
posted by dreamsign at 7:45 PM on May 26, 2007


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