Wild Weather

By Bill Korbel

I have seen and done lots of exciting things over the years.  I watched a space shuttle launch from just 5 miles away.  I've seen the Aurora Borealis.  I even had a flight on Air Force One. But one thing I have never seen is a tornado. Not that I want to be too near a really big one, but safely distant from even a weak one would be just fine.   Well, I was almost able to scratch that one off my to do list (or considering my age, my "bucket list") yesterday afternoon. 

Check out this photo taken within a mile of the News 12 studios. It sure looks like a tornado, although in the Photo Shop age, one never really knows.  Of course I was inside doing weather updates and never even had a chance to look out.

We did however see a very strong radar image with what might have been the signature of rotation. The arrow points to the area in the photograph.

There was also a waterspout that developed in the Oyster Bay/Center Island area on the north shore.  We received a great photo of that one and there is absolutely no doubt what it was.  We even showed a video on air.  A water spout is essentially a tornado over water, but there are some significant differences. First, they tend to be weaker than tornadoes with most producing winds in the 60 to 90 mph range.  They also form differently.  Tornadoes develop as rotation in a cloud extends to the surface.  Water spouts on the other hand normally develop on the surface of the water and extend upward to the cloud.  The rotation becomes visible as water vapor within the funnel condenses.