Record Waterspouts Over the Great Lakes

While waterspouts often happen over the Great Lakes during the fall months, they do not happen as often as they did last week. Waterspouts may look as menacing as tornados but often are much less intense.

Northern Michigan saw below-average temperatures move over 60-degree Great Lake Waters. The temperature difference results in rising motion, which leads to clouds and showers to develop. When those showers and clouds develop over a localized area of the spin, otherwise known as vorticity, it can condense and become a funnel. Once the funnel has made contact with the ground, a waterspout has formed!

A record-breaking 240 waterspouts were confirmed by the International Centre For Waterspout Research last week. This broke a previous record of 88 in August of 2020. At least four counties in northern Michigan witnessed a waterspout along the Lake Michigan Shoreline. There was at least one waterspout reported on each of the Great Lakes.  No damage reported with last week’s outbreak.

If you want more information about waterspouts or a cool experiment to get the kids engaged with learning about science and waterspouts you can check out Doppler 9&10 STEM .