Lake Ontario Watherspout 08/08/08

Written by: Brian Neudorff

Our weather in western New York for 08/08/08 has been more like 10/08/08. What we have experienced most of the morning is the kind of weather you would typically expect to occur in October rather than August.

The colder air that was mentioned back on Tuesday arrived as forecast. This set off some lake effect rain showers towards Buffalo and caused a couple of waterspouts to form out over Lake Ontario.

Waterspouts, in the simplest terms, are tornadoes over water. Although they have a similar structure to some tornadoes, they form much differently. We typically see waterspouts more in the autumn months as the air becomes significantly colder than the water of Lake Ontario. These waterspouts form only over open water. They develop at the surface of the water and climb skyward in association with warm water temperatures and high humidity in the lowest several thousand feet of the atmosphere. They are usually small, relatively brief, and less dangerous. These waterspouts, sometimes referred to as the fair weather variety of waterspout, are more common than the tornadic waterspout, which is just a tornado associated with a severe thunderstorm that forms over land and then moves over water.

I have included some picture we received from a few viewers up in Webster that were taken around 9 a.m. Friday morning.