Superb waterspout over the Punaauia lagoon!

Magnificent celestial spectacle

Photo Rainer LEY

Even more beautiful from above!

Difference between waterspout and tornado

If the 2 phenomena have common points, they are both generated by cumulonimbus or powerful cumulus clouds, they nonetheless remain completely different. 

• La trumpets, also called waterspouts ou downpour, does not form than on sea. Her lifetime rarely exceeds 10 minutes and wind are there not very violent. Even if punctually in certain rare cases, they can exceed 150 kilometers per hour, hazard is minime. The diameter of a waterspout is low, a twenty meters, very rarely more. And the fact that it only occurs at sea means that it only causes little or no damage. It is formed in the presence of a cumulonimbus or a powerful one Cumulus when of thecold air overlooks a Hot water.
  

  Photo Bastien PAGLI

  

  Photo MIchou HOATA

  

  Photo Kevin KLEIN

• La tornado she is much more powerful and it forms on earth. Her lifetime can exceed 1 time. It moves at a speed between 30 et 50 kilometers per hour and the most powerful ones can give birth to winds exceeding 500 kilometers per hour, EF 5 on theFujita scale ! So they can do fly a pickup truck to more 100 meters…. with its driver at the wheel! Tornadoes are very common in spring in the United States, east of the Rockies, in the United States of Texas, theOklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. Every year, in this region nicknamed “Tornado Alley”, dozens of people lose their lives and the damage is estimated at several billion dollars.

  

Ultimately