Once June comes around in Tampa Bay, the chance for afternoon showers and storms is almost a guarantee.
Waterspouts, while not as common as your typical afternoon shower, occur around Tampa Bay more frequently than you might realize.
During the summer months, as overnight temperatures cool, the difference between the relatively warm ocean water and the cooling temperatures over land create what is referred to as a land breeze. This land breeze shifts the winds from the center of the state west toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Yes, this is the complete reverse of a sea breeze.
Overnight, the leading edge of the land breeze will shift just offshore of Tampa Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. In the ideal situation, light southwesterly winds will converge with the land breeze and lead to small scale areas of rotating winds called vorticity.
This boundary along the leading edge of the land breeze typically produces shower and thunderstorm activity. As the storms develop they elongate that vorticity, or spin, vertically.
As that column of air continues to lift, it contracts and begins to spin. If that rotation is able to get fast enough a waterspout is able to form.
Most water spouts that form this way are relatively weak and remain offshore. If a waterspout moves over land it is technically considered to be a tornado.
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