OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG) — A weather camera in Fort Walton Beach, Florida belonging to Nexstar’s WKRG caught an amazing sight Tuesday morning.
At around 5:48 a.m., the camera captured a waterspout forming offshore. WKRG was able to track the waterspout as it moved across the water for several minutes during a live broadcast.
Sister station WFLA’s chief meteorologist Jeff Berardelli confirmed it was a tornadic waterspout – or a tornado moving over water – rather than a fair weather waterspout.
Fair weather waterspouts are generally not associated with thunderstorms, while tornadic are, NOAA explains.
Tornadic waterspouts “have the same characteristics as a land tornado,” NOAA writes. “They are associated with severe thunderstorms, and are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning.”
Both the video above and another shared on Twitter show multiple lightning strikes near the waterspout, as well as looming storm clouds.
A fair weather waterspout, a common sighting in Florida, typically occurs during “fair and relatively calm weather,” according to NOAA.
Last week, on the opposite side of the country, Nexstar’s KTLA was able to capture dramatic footage of a fire tornado that developed during the brush fire battle.
Sometimes called “fire devils” or “firenadoes,” fire tornadoes can occur when extreme, rising heat meets turbulent wind conditions. The tornado then sucks in combustible gases and burning debris, as you can see in the video.
