Alabama waterspout
© YouTube/AL.com (screen capture)
The eastern shore of Mobile Bay is better known for sunset viewing, but Celie Mills Tobias of Mobile captured a stunning sunrise on Thursday, when daylight revealed a massive waterspout moving onshore.

Mills shot video from the shoreline in the area of Mullet Point, south of Fairhope. In the clip she posted to Facebook, the spout drifts slowly eastward, from right to left. About the time it appears to hit the shoreline, it withers away, disappearing from the bottom up.

Waterspouts are occasionally seen off the coastline, and more rarely in the upper reaches of Mobile Bay. They tend to occur during hot, stormy conditions, so images as clearly defined as those captured by Mills are uncommon. In some of the still images she captures, a wall of rain can be seen nearby, but the spout itself was not obscured.

Mills said she had been "waiting years for a good one," and that the phenomenon lasted for more than five minutes.