Last night, September 18, 2008 a huge collection of thunderstorms surrounded Fort Myers, FL. I live on Fort Myers Beach and walked outside to check on the storms. My wife pointed out a strange, dark protrusion forming under a cloud over the Gulf. Never having seen a waterspout before, it took a few seconds to realize I needed a camera, now!
The first photo shows the spout forming, the rest of the pictures show it touching down. At first there were lots of birds in the air, trying to find a safe place to hide from this tornado over the water.
The waterspout took about 2 minutes to become fully formed, and it lasted for approximately 10 minutes total. It was too far away to hear it or, luckily, to fear it.
It was in incredible sight.
Pictures were taken with 750mm equivalent lens, hand held, image stabilized camera.
