Malaysia Waterspout

December 07, 2004

Waterspout copy

Provided and copyright by: Sophie Sandor
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster; Sophie Sandor

The picture above showing a serpentine waterspout, dangling from a cumulonimbus cloud, was taken on the afternoon of July 28, 2004, just east of the Malaysia Peninsula. Initially, there were two waterspouts; one moving directly towards us, the second one parallel to the vessel we were on. The first one died a few kilometers in front of us, however, the second one (shown above in the mature stage) passed a few kilometers along side us then quickly dissipated as well. Though both of these tornadic storms were rather weak (F0 on the Fujita Scale), nonetheless, they were sufficiently menacing to warrant our concern.

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