Water spout
© Courtesy, Brett Kendall
Lake Tahoe was treated to a rare weather occurrence Wednesday night as a water spout formed along the west shore of the lake.

The water spout, essentially a very weak tornado over water, formed near the mouth of Emerald Bay just after 9 p.m., according to Brett Kendall, brewmaster at nearbyFOLK Brewing Co., who snapped a picture of the aqueous twister from the lake's east shore.

"Water spouts can happen anytime there is a thunderstorm with a strong enough rotation to form a funnel," said Chris Smallcomb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno. "They are generally weak, with winds around 60 or 70 mph, and they are pretty slow moving, but they can be unpredictable so people should try to steer clear."

Smallcomb said he had never seen one on Lake Tahoe. But after asking around the weather station, he said that one of his colleagues recalled one as recently as 2004.

A water spout has the potential to cause damage if a boater happened to be in its path or if it came onshore, but there was no indication that Wednesday's example was anything more than a sight to behold.