Photos That Made Us Feel Like Tiny Specs of Dust

Waterspouts are basically tornadoes of the sea. A funnel of wind whips the water up into the clouds, creating a terrifying column of H2O. While many megalophobes can easily deal with a torrential downpour, water spouts can be hundreds of feet tall. These don’t always happen during storms, either. Fair-weather waterspouts have been spotted many times.

These aren’t just found in the ocean. In 2020, four waterspout events set a record in the Great Lakes, with over 240 confirmed sightings over a seven-day period. No one knows for sure why they happened, but the previous record of 88 happened just a few months earlier. Maybe megalophobes should steer clear of the Great Lakes for a while.