There's Been A Record Breaking Outbreak Of Waterspouts On The Great Lakes This Month

Beautiful but terrifying! All of the Great Lakes waterspouts that have formed recently have set a new record for the biggest outbreak ever recorded on the lakes. It's been a really active season for these weather events.

The International Centre for Waterspout Research confirmed on August 20 that the record had been broken for the largest outbreak.

From August 16 to August 19, a whopping 88 waterspouts and funnels formed over the lakes.

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Many Ontarians spotted these phenomenal weather events and shared their photos on social media.

Some were on the smaller side but some were monster spouts.

It was believed that the record would be broken when the season started rather aggressively earlier in the month according to The Weather Network.

Those predictions were right because two records have already been smashed this month.

This outbreak surpassed the previous one that happened from August 3 to August 7 when there were 82 waterspouts and funnels over the Great Lakes.

Before that, the highest had been 66+ back in 2003.

"Warmer-than-normal lake temperatures due to a very hot July, combined with cool temperatures and light winds are the perfect atmospheric conditions for many waterspouts to form," said Melinda Singh, a meteorologist with The Weather Network.

These weather wonders are non-supercell tornados that form over water.

There is potential for them to leave the water and come onto land but there haven't been any reports of that happening during the most recent outbreak.

They're most common in the late summer and early fall because the lake temperatures are still warm.

So, this outbreak is pretty much right on schedule.

It's been a stormy summer in Ontario and not just because of the waterspouts.

Multiple tornados have touched down in different parts of the province and there's been localized flooding because of all the rain.

Earlier in the month, two twisters touched down in Manitoba less than a week apart.

One of the storms killed two eighteen-year-olds.

Cover photo used for illustrative purposes only.