Waterspout spotted off the coastline in Leone bay area

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A video of  a waterspout recorded in Leone and posted online by Billie Ena was circulating Thursday morning and creating a lot of concerns among people sharing the post.

Samoa News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comments but was told the staff was not available after being “released early” per their director Samana Semo Ve’ave’a.

Efforts to get comments from the director were also unsuccessful.

Other people commented that it appeared to be a waterspout.

A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex that occurs over a body of water.

Dr. Joseph Golden, a waterspout authority with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), defines the waterspout as a "funnel which contains an intense vortex, sometimes destructive, of small horizontal extent and which occurs over a body of water."

This is outlined on the NOAA website regarding water spouts in general.

“The belief that a waterspout is nothing more than a tornado over water is only partially true. The fact is, depending on how they form, waterspouts come in two types: tornadic and fair weather.

“Tornadic waterspouts generally begin as true tornadoes over land in association with a thunderstorm, and then move out over the water.

“They can be large and are capable of considerable destruction. Fair weather waterspouts, on the other hand, form only over open water.

“They develop at the surface of the water and climb skyward in association with warm water temperatures and high humidity in the lowest several thousand feet of the atmosphere. They are usually small, relatively brief, and less dangerous. The fair weather variety of waterspout is much more common than the tornadic.”

According to the NOAA website waterspout formation typically occurs when cold air moves across the Great Lakes and results in large temperature differences between the warm water and the overriding cold air.

They tend to last from about two to twenty minutes, and move along at speeds of 10 to 15 knots.

Dr. Joseph Golden distinguishes five stages of waterspout formation:

1          Dark spot. A prominent circular, light-colored disk appears on the surface of the water, surrounded by a larger dark area of indeterminate shape and with diffused edges.

2          Spiral pattern. A pattern of light and dark-colored surface bands spiraling out from the dark spot which develops on the water surface.

3          Spray ring. A dense swirling annulus (ring) of sea spray, called a cascade, appears around the dark spot with what appears to be an eye similar to that seen in hurricanes.

4          Mature vortex. The waterspout, now visible from water surface to the overhead cloud mass, achieves maximum organization and intensity. Its funnel often appears hollow, with a surrounding shell of turbulent condensate. The spray vortex can rise to a height of several hundred feet or more and often creates a visible wake and an associated wave train as it moves.

5          Decay. The funnel and spray vortex begin to dissipate as the inflow of warm air into the vortex weakens.

6          National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists consider forecasting waterspouts during the late summer and fall whenever large, cool air masses overspread the waters of the Great Lakes. 

7          “Water temperature, air temperature, moisture, and wind speed in the lowest several thousand feet of the atmosphere are among the parameters forecasters assess when determining the likelihood of waterspouts.

8          “Waterspouts become favorable when water temperatures are warm, the air is cold and moist, and wind speeds are relatively light.”