Mother Nature sure is a creative beast.
As someone who has been fascinated by tornados my entire life, I love finding new pictures of twisters in rare form, and this one definitely falls under that category.
A scientist snapped a lucky shot in Louisiana on Wednesday just as twin “waterspouts” emerged from the waters of Grand Isle, which is located in the Gulf coast. While twisters formed over bodies of water aren’t so rare, it’s extremely rare to see two form at the same time, especially of this size. Usually, waterspouts actually form in the water and rise up, rather than being spun out from the clouds, creating a beautiful and mesmerizing scene. They’re also not as big as these and almost never make the jump to land, but these funnels were formed the old fashioned way and just happened to touch down on the water, meaning they had enough force to skip over to dry land and wreak some havoc.
Tim Osborne, the photographer, said he had a hard time looking away from the funnels but was close to shelter just in case one decided to come his way…and one did.
“The one on the right was actually coming right at us,” he said. “As it got closer, you could see that eye wall rotating, and rotating fast, and you could hear it ripping across the water.”
Luckily for Tim and other onlookers, the twisters didn’t do any damage to people, although they did cut through a residential area to cause some trouble before dissipating after about fifteen minutes.