Waterspouts could become more frequent due to climate changepublished at 12:01 British Summer Time
Matt Taylor
BBC Weather
Witnesses report seeing a waterspout during the storm before the Bayes yacht sank.
Most of us know what tornadoes are: rotating columns of destructive winds that reach from the base of clouds to the ground.
Waterspouts are also waterspouts, but they are over water rather than land. Instead of dust and debris swirling around the core of strong winds, they are water mist kicked up from the surface.
Like tornadoes, they are usually short-lived, narrow columns that are not easily detected on weather radar, which is why many of them go unreported.
However, they are not as rare as you might think. According to the International Centre for Waterspout Research, there were 18 confirmed waterspouts off the coast of Italy on August 19 alone (the day the yacht sank).
In the Northern Hemisphere, waterspouts are most common in late summer and fall, when ocean temperatures are highest and fuel storm clouds. But as ocean temperatures rise due to climate change, there are concerns that they may become more frequent.
Last week, the Mediterranean Sea experienced the highest sea surface temperature ever recorded, contributing to the intensification of the recent storm outbreak.
