waterspout
A close cousin to the tornado - the waterspout - touched down in south-western Finland on Friday.

As showers and thunderstorms move across the southwest, the crew aboard a Western Finland Coast Guard surveillance aircraft spotted a high-speed waterspout touching down in the Finnish Archipelago on Friday morning.

The team managed to film the meteorological spectacle, which took place near the island municipality of Pargas.


Waterspouts are formed by water droplets from clouds as well as seawater, brought together by strong, spinning winds, according to Yle meteorologist Kerttu Kotakorpi.

The combination of thunderstorms and strong winds commonly produce so-called funnel clouds, which are cone shaped protuberances from the cloud base, Kotakorpi explained.

"If winds are strong enough, the funnel cloud reaches the sea level," she said.

Wind speeds of at least 18 m/s are needed to form a waterspout, a weather phenomenon that can cause major damage at sea as well as on land. In North America, the more powerful variations of waterspouts are known as tornadoes and significantly more dangerous.