Darshan Khatau, a resident of Malabar Hill, was in for a surprise on Monday morning when he spotted a water-tornado, also known as a waterspout. This is a rotating funnel-shaped cloud formation that is usually seen over water, though not this close to the coast.
The water-tornado was spotted at around 9:15 AM near Prongs Lighthouse, approximately 3 kilometres off the coast of Mumbai. Khatau is a wildlife enthusiast and avian who has also photographed several unique species of birds.
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“The phenomenon lasted for about 20 seconds and I managed to take two short videos. The location of the waterspout may not have been more than 1 km off Colaba early this morning. Owing to cloud cover and haze, the photos were not very clear,” Khatau said in a conversation with Hindustan Times.
In addition to the spotting by Khatau, social media posts mentioned that the water-tornado was seen near Marine Drive on Monday morning.
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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) called this a rare event. Its Director-General, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said - “This does not happen frequently. Whenever there is any convective activity (vertical transport of heat and moisture in the atmosphere from warmer surface area and lifted to cooler zone) followed by thunderstorms, this kind of weather phenomenon is witnessed.”
Elaborating on the science behind this, Secretary of the Ministry Of Earth Sciences, M Rajeevan said, “This is an atmospheric phenomenon. It is a rotation of the cloud that comes down and pulls up water. Owing to convective currents, there is a down-drop effect which pulls up the water in a rotational manner for a small time frame.”
Shortly after the water-tornado was spotted, some parts of Mumbai including the suburbs witnessed isolated incidents of light rain.
Picture: Darshan Khatau/ Instagram
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