A friend of mine was attending a funeral in the town when the twister crossed the coast about 300m away. He said that it was developing constant small lightning bolts. Luckily, no one was out kiting at the time. My friend took these pics with his phone. Note the circular swell in the first pic!

good pics. nice post. an yep, hooooooooooooge boosts.

The twister passed through right where we normally kite; hitting Lennox surf club, caravan park and surrounds. There were multiple water spouts on the day. This one was in front of my house, passing less than 100m away. That's suffolk park caravan park in front of the pine trees. My girlfriend and dog thought it was the most amazing thing they had ever seen. Scary yet beautiful. They make a sound like a jet engine. It's crappy footage, shot from back on the hill that doesn't give you the scale of how big and close they were.

Having witnessed first hand water spouts off Seacliff where I live, I have noticed that they create their own micro local weather, and local winds tend to drop off dramatically as the funnel approaches, then change direction and pick up to incredible speed as they pass. This one was estimated at 200KPH! The danger would be if you were out to sea kiting, with thunderstorms in the area, and you dropped your kite due to lack of wind, and one of these things formed near you. What would you do?

partial credit to gypsy drifter for this photo from lennox the other day.