Waterspout on Pensacola Beach
July 31, 2013  11:27am
Jim Edds

This waterspout was just west of the Pensacola Beach fishing pier on the edge of the rain moving to the SE.  I first noticed a short funnel in the sky and then looked on the surface and saw the spray ring on the surface. The funnel would condense then disappear off and on - I never got a complete cloud to spray ring visual.  As is typical after you see a waterspout, there is a thunderstorm and the lifeguards cleared everybody out of the water.  I don't know if they even saw the waterspout or spray ring.  Then didn't mention it on the PA system just the lightning in the area warning.  You can see in the first wide shot photo rain to the right.  The waterspout, when I saw it, formed just to the left of the center, where the water is slick.  In the 4th photo is a bird near the vortex.  When I was in the Florida Keys flying in a Cessna 172, I saw birds purposely in the waterspout updraft above the spray ring to gain altitude.