Photograph of waterspout over the Peace River,
at approximately 740 PM EDT July 15, 2005.
Courtesy of the Punta Gorda Police Department

Perhaps the most photographed waterspout ( and landspout) in recent memory developed just north of Punta Gorda during the evening of July 15th. A wondrous natural site, the spout fortunately remained near or over water for most of its life. For the short period on land, only minor damage was reported, mostly to trees. One residence sustained minor damage. Power outages were also noted in the area; however, some of these may have been due to locally excessive cloud to ground lightning strikes.

The storm was notable for its duration; the spout was in contact with land or water for about 18 minutes (733 PM to 751 PM EDT), with the funnel visible by some for more than 20 minutes! The long duration allowed thousands of area residents to observe the phenomenon, which many called amazing. An immediate storm survey conducted by the Punta Gorda Police Department noted a slow, general southerly movement on the spout, briefly touching land once, then making a final landfall before dissipating. Figure 1 (right) shows the estimated track.

For more photos, click here.

Meteorology
This event formed in the classic Florida landspout fashion. The combination of an outflow boundary moving north from a weakening cell near Fort Myers, a sea/harbor breeze from the Gulf and Charlotte Harbor, and outflow from a strengthening line of storms moving west from Desoto County produced a rapidly intensifying storm in western Charlotte County. Shortly after 730 PM EDT, the storm had excellent radar presentation (Figure 2, below), including a >60 dbZ reflectivity core (a), a high vertically integrated liquid value (b), and even rotation at several levels (c). In addition to the spout, the storm produced penny sized hail and locally torrential rainfall.