A waterspout formed Saturday in Barnegat Bay, the National Weather Service said. The massive funnel-like spout can be seen here from Bayside Terrace in Seaside Heights.
A waterspout formed Saturday in Barnegat Bay, the National Weather Service said. The massive funnel-like spout can be seen here from Bayside Terrace in Seaside Heights.
Think of it as a tornado over the ocean.

A waterspout — a whirling column of air and mist — formed in Barnegat Bay Saturday afternoon, as a coastal weather front produced showers, wind and hail that lit up social media.

The water spout was reported around 2:30 p.m. over the water off Seaside Heights, said Brian Haines, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly.

The Seaside Park Volunteer Fire Company said on Twitter that the spout was spotted between Toms River and Seaside Heights, north of the Route 37 bridge.



The weather service issued a special marine warning for the coastal waters from Manasquan inlet to Little Egg inlet and advised boats to seek harbor immediately. Waterspouts can create hazardous seas and can easily overturn boats, the service said.

While hardly an everyday occurrence, waterspouts do form along the Shore when conditions are right, said Haines.

"I would say that it's certainly not all the time, but we definitely get waterspouts here," Haines said.

In July 2020, two waterspouts and one or more funnel clouds were seen spinning over different areas of the Jersey Shore as strong thunderstorms were sweeping across the state, the National Weather Service and social media users reported at the time.