The Great Lakes Had a Record Number of Waterspouts This Year
“Did the Great Lakes overtake the Florida Keys?”
The week of September 28th to October 4th was a record-setter for the Great Lakes - more than 230 waterspouts were spawned in that time, which comes out to about 33 per day.
Waterspouts are tornado-like vortices that form over water. Sometimes, but not often, they do move onto land and become official "tornadoes." They form when cold air from Canada moves over warm water; tornadoes are similar in that they form over open land when cold air from up north mixes with warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts have called this a "world record" for the Great Lakes; the previous weekly record was 88 waterspouts. “This outbreak beats anything that’s happened in the past,” Wade Szilagyi, who is the director of the International Centre for Waterspout Research, told the Washington Post.
Szilagyi has three decades of research behind him about waterspouts that he's planning on releasing in a study.
Of all of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie is the most prone to waterspouts. Lake Superior is less-likely because it's deep and cold, but waterspouts still spawn there, too.
I'm a huge weather nerd, so this got me all kinds of excited. Of all the weather phenomena, tornadoes and waterspouts are my favorite. They're absolutely mesmerizing and fascinating.
However, if I was crossing the Mackinac Bridge and there was a waterspout visible in the straits, I think I'd probably wet myself and cry. But hey, we can just watch other peoples' videos instead.
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