Monterey Bay waterspout spotted
Benjamin Charpy was on his weekly bike ride along the Santa Cruz coast Saturday morning when he saw a strange sight over Monterey Bay.
“I was like, ‘What am I seeing right now?’ ” Charpy said.
Charpy then realized he was witnessing a waterspout, a vertically spinning column of air, similar to a tornado, that extends from the base of a cloud toward the water’s surface. He quickly slammed on the brakes and pulled out his camera from the front of his cargo bike.
“It was not stormy, and this was definitely not a high-wind day,” Charpy said. “It was funny to see the twister out there in the ocean.”
The waterspout spun over the bay for nearly 10 minutes before dissipating, he said. The National Weather Service confirmed the waterspout did not reach land and was merely a treat for folks near Monterey Bay.
Although waterspouts aren’t everyday occurrences, they do happen occasionally off the California coast, most often during winter storms.
“People might say, ‘Oh, that was really unusual, and it never occurs.’ I would say that’s probably not the case,” said Matt Mehle, a meteorolotornado, gist at the weather service.
Waterspouts are often accompanied by low clouds and rain, making them impossible to see from the coast. However, Saturday’s waterspout came during a break in the weather.
Mehle says several waterspouts have occurred along the coast in the past several years, including near Stinson Beach in Marin County and Carmel Bay in Monterey County.
In 2012, a waterspout came ashore in Watsonville and transitioned to a knocking down trees and damaging greenhouses. The weather service rated the damage as a low-end tornado, an EF0 on a scale from zero to five, with winds reaching 75 mph.
Waterspouts are most common during winter, when cold air moves over relatively warmer water off the California coast. If there is enough spin in the atmosphere, waterspouts can form.
The weather service often issues “special marine warnings” for chances of waterspouts if radar detects enough spin in the atmosphere. However, Saturday’s waterspout flew under the radar, literally, as little to no rotation was detected by the local radar.
Two storms this week may raise the chance of another waterspout or two along the California coast.
Saturday has the best chance of waterspouts, but it is too early so say whether any waterspouts would be visible from the coast.