Florida Boaters Capture Twin Waterspouts Up Close on Video

New York Times

26-06-2025

Living on Florida's Gulf Coast, Jeni Scheid has seen waterspouts before. But on Sunday, when she and her husband, D.J., took their boat out with family and a friend, they saw not one, but two of the funnel formations up close.
The group had seen ominous clouds on the horizon and, as rain began to pour, decided to head back to dry land. But then Mr. Scheid pointed out water rising up from the Manatee River about 200 feet away from their 30-foot boat — the 'up-Scheid-down.'
'That's going to be a waterspout,' he said, Ms. Scheid recalled.
Sure enough, one funnel came down from a spiraling cloud, and then a second.
'Our brains could not compute what we were seeing,' Ms. Scheid said in an interview. 'It looked like something from a movie.'
Ms. Scheid and her husband try to take their boat out on the Manatee River in Bradenton, Fla., every Sunday. This time they went with their four children, a cousin and a friend.
'All the kids were excited, loved it, wanted to get closer,' Ms. Scheid said. The group began taking out their phones to capture the scene.
But they did not chase the waterspouts and watched from a distance, Ms. Scheid said.
Though awe-inspiring, waterspouts can be dangerous and carry winds that can reach up to 100 miles per hour, according to Austen Flannery, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Tampa Bay, Fla. They are 'pretty common' in Florida in the summer, especially in the Keys, but seeing two at once is 'more infrequent,' he said.
There are two types of waterspouts, Mr. Flannery said. One is essentially a 'tornado over water' that spins out of a thunderstorm, similar to what people might see on the Great Plains, he said.
The dual waterspouts in Bradenton were 'fair weather waterspouts' that can happen during relatively calm weather when sea breezes collide or the leading edge of a thunderstorm brings a gusty front, Mr. Flannery said. Colder, denser air pushes warmer, more unstable air upward, creating a whirlwind, he said.
Mayor Gene Brown of Bradenton and his wife also recorded a dramatic video of the twin waterspouts, which was shared by the Bradenton Police Department. The video also shows drivers stopping on a bridge to watch the funnels. Mr. Brown said the waterspouts caused no damage even though 'they were huge.'
The rare brush with two spouts wasn't terrifying for Ms. Scheid once she realized how slowly they were moving, she said. It wasn't a tornado with debris flying, she added.
When the boat returned to land, Ms. Scheid was surprised that people standing far away had seen the spouts. She realized that they had to have been huge.
'Every movie, you see when spirits or angels are going up to heaven,' Ms. Scheid said. 'That's what it looked like.'
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.