A waterspout formed off Hilton Head’s most popular beach Friday morning. Watch it go!
Mother Nature says “Happy Friday, Hilton Head Island!”
A waterspout - a tornado formed over water - appeared far off Hilton Head’s popular Coligny Beach around 9 a.m. on Friday morning.
Beachgoers could clearly see the waterspout form and connect the clouds with the ocean.
It formed for about a minute before dissipating.
What is a waterspout?
The name waterspout is actually misleading because it’s not filled with water from the ocean or a lake.
According to National Geographic, “a waterspout descends from a cumulus cloud. It does not ‘spout’ from the water. The water inside a waterspout is formed by condensation in the cloud.”
There are two types of water spouts: fair weather and tornadic waterspouts.
Tornadic waterspouts are usually associated with thunderstorms and have the same characteristics of a land tornado, but just happen to be over water.
Fair weather waterspouts require warm water and cumulus cloud formations to occur. They are rarely dangerous.
The average waterspout is around 165 feet wide with wind speeds of 50 miles per hour, National Geographic reported. Those metrics correspond to the weakest types of tornadoes on land.
The largest waterspouts can have diameters of 30 feet and last for up to one hour, though the average lifetime is between five and 10 minutes, according to National Geographic.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 3:37 PM.
