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© Lucinda DixonHull resident Lucinda Dixon snapped this waterspout near Peddocks Island late Tuesday afternoon.
While some Hull beach goers hurried for cover when Tuesday's afternoon storm rolled in, Lucinda Dixon headed in the opposite direction for a round of storm watching - and she got a dramatic snap of a waterspout when she did.

Dixon had parked her Jeep off the shore at Hull Gut around 4 p.m., when she noticed the spout near Peddocks Island, about a half mile away.

"I've never seen one before," she told The Patriot Ledger Wednesday. "It was there for about two minutes and then it just fell apart."

The National Weather Service's Taunton office confirmed that it got a report of the waterspout at 4:28 p.m. Tuesday.

The weather service defines them as "tornadic waterspouts," since they form over water much like tornados on land. They form downward, from clouds to water, during severe thunderstorms, high winds and hail.

Just a couple of hours before Dixon saw the spout, those enjoying the sun at Nantasket Beach included youngsters Charlotte Chandler and Simone Doyle-Trainor, both 9, who were with Charlotte's mother, Jessie Chandler, and Simone's father, Steven Trainor.

"They had to scramble, kind of pack up quickly, because the wind came up really fast," Jessie Chandler said of the girls. "They had to get out of Dodge."

Source: The Patriot Ledger