It is only in recent years that some of the workings of waterspouts have been unraveled, though waterspouts.... water waterspout

It is only in recent years that some of the workings of waterspouts have been unraveled, though waterspouts have been known and remarked upon since ancient times. Contrary to popular opinion, a waterspout does not suck up water to great heights, though it may lift the water level a metre or so at its point of contact with the surface. Modern scientific interest in waterspouts began with the appearance of a particularly large and persistent spout on August 19, 1896, off the coast of Massachusetts, where thousands of vacationers and several scientists observed it. Its height was estimated to be 1,095 metres (3,593 feet, or almost 0.7 mile) and its width, 256 metres (840 feet) at the crest, 43 metres (141 feet) at the centre, and 73 metres (240 feet) at the base. The shroud of spray surrounding the central funnel was about 200 metres (656 feet) wide near the water surface and 120 metres (394 feet) high. Observations from aircraft indicate that most waterspouts have a five-stage! life cycle: 1) the dark-spot stage, with a circular, raised patch of water marking the point of contact of the vortex core with the water surface; 2) the spiral-pattern stage, where a spiral is made visible by differences in waves on the water surface; 3) the spray-ring stage, where the dark spot is surrounded by a sheath of water droplets ripped from the water surface by the swirling winds; 4) the mature or spray-vortex stage, where both the spray vortex and the funnel cloud are at their maximum size and intensity; and 5) the decay stage, where the waterspout dissipates. The funnel appears to develop downward from the base of the parent cloud, reaching toward the water surface. The condensation funnel usually appears toward the end of stage 2, as the spiral pattern in the surface water waves wraps tightly around the dark spot marking the centre of the vortex. The consensus of these measurements indicates these vortices have winds in the range 15 to 85 metres per second (4! 9 to 279 feet per second), with most spouts having their maxim! um winds toward the low end of this range. Lifetimes of typical waterspouts average 5 to 10 minutes, but occasionally a large waterspout may persist for up to one hour. To form, waterspouts require warm surface water in addition to the necessary atmospheric conditions discussed above. water waterspout