Story By: John Feng, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire
This is the moment a tornado is filmed taking shape on a beach shortly before moving out to see to become a huge towering waterspout.
The freak weather phenomenon was captured by residents of the city of Beihai, which is in China’s southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on 17th September.
The footage shows the column of spinning air kicking up sand on Beihai’s popular Silver Beach, swirling debris around in the air.
Subsequent video, however, show the twister having moved off land into the South China Sea, where it has become a thick and long vortex of fast-spinning wind known as a waterspout.
As it sucks up seawater and forms a bridge between the low clouds and the water’s surface, videos show the city’s landmark Yintan No 1 International Convention Center in the foreground.
Liang Baorong, director of the Beihai Meteorological Bureau, said the tornado and later waterspout was caused by recent extreme heat.
It lasted about 10 minutes before dispersing and did not appear to cause any damage to property, he said.
Liang said waterspouts are rarely seen in China, but tornadoes – which form on land – are seen even less often.
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