Waterspouts: Fair-Weather vs. Tornadic, and What to Do If You See One from the Beach or a Boat
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How we wrote this: A plain-English summary of NOAA's National Ocean Service page on waterspouts, which draws on the National Weather Service, checked October 29, 2026.
A waterspout is a rotating column of air over water, usually connected to a cloud. NOAA divides them into two very different types.
Tornadic waterspouts
These are tornadoes that form over water, or move from land to water. They have the same features as a land tornado and come with severe thunderstorms, often with high winds and seas, large hail and frequent dangerous lightning.
Fair-weather waterspouts
These are usually weaker and form differently:
- They develop along the dark, flat base of a line of building cumulus clouds, and usually without a thunderstorm.
- They start on the water's surface and work upward, the opposite of tornadic waterspouts, which develop downward from a thunderstorm. By the time you can see the funnel, a fair-weather waterspout is nearly mature.
- They form in light winds, so they normally move very little.
What to do
- On a boat: the National Weather Service says the best way to avoid a waterspout is to move at a 90-degree angle to its apparent movement.
- Never move closer to investigate. NOAA says some waterspouts can be just as dangerous as tornadoes.
- On the beach: if a waterspout moves onshore, the NWS issues a tornado warning, because some can cause significant damage and injuries. Get off the beach and into a sturdy building. Fair-weather waterspouts usually fall apart quickly at landfall and rarely get far inland, but don't count on it.
- Thunderstorm nearby? The lightning risk alone is reason to leave the beach (see beach weather and lightning safety).
Related: storm surge and ocean waves, severe thunderstorm warnings, beach warning flags.