Rare weather phenomenon lifts water in Chaleur Bay

Paul Michael and his wife Jane were enjoying a Saturday evening on their friend's cottage deck at Youghall Beach, in Bathurst, N.B., watching as a thunderstorm rolled in over the water.

"It was a pretty powerful looking thunderstorm heading our way — big dark clouds, lightning," he said. But he soon noticed something different on the water. 

"Suddenly, I saw this commotion out in the water."

Michael said the commotion was approximately a quarter of a mile offshore and described it as water that "consolidated into two or three funnels swirling in a circle."

He said the weather event swirled and moved "fairly quickly" across Chaleur Bay and lasted "about 60 seconds or so."

Michael, who recorded the event on his phone, said it was like watching "water that sort of moved up into the air, like funnels." 

"We were all amazed. It was just mesmerizing really, to watch it."

CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said what Michael captured on his phone is a "rare" event but it will take experts some time to determine what it was.

Snoddon said satellite radar images confirmed a large thunderstorm moved through the Bathurst region at the time. 

"So, that leaves us with two options," he said. 

Snoddon said it was either a tornadic waterspout or a gustnado.

A tornadic waterspout is "essentially a tornado that forms over the water or moves from land to the water," he said.

Tornadic waterspouts have the "same characteristics as a land tornado" and are associated with severe thunderstorms. 

"A waterspout is a spinning column of air that extends down from the clouds and touches the water surface, forming that waterspout", he said.