The rare sea vortex was filmed which showed the water is flowing upwards while climbing up 470m sea cliff known as Beinisvørð in Denmark’s Faroe Islands.
The video was recorded by 41-year-old Samy Jacobsen walking along the cliffs off Suðuroy on the island on Monday after spotting a whirlwind of water rising from the waves.
It showed the powerfully spraying off into the distance before slowing down and dwindling out which weather experts said it was a water spout – a spiralling pillar of air, Daily Star reported.
It then forms like a tornado over the water when a cliff edge spins the wind in a circle.
Jacobsen said, “From home I could see that the scene was definitely set for great pictures since the sky and the sea were almost colliding in the storm. I saw something being blown up into the air from that area before but I have never investigated it though.”
“In the vicinity, there are many small rivers that defy gravity in stormy conditions and an awful lot of seawater is blown up and travels pretty far upland. So it is not always easy to tell what it is.”
Exceptional video of the vortex forming along the cliff of Beinisvørð – a 470 m high sea cliff, the highest sea cliff in Suðuroy, the Faroe Islands on Jan 6th, 2020. We thank Helen Wang for the report, the video was recorded by her brother Samy Jacobsen – posted with permission. pic.twitter.com/FMALjZpvSt
— severe-weather.EU (@severeweatherEU) January 8, 2020
A senior senior operational meteorologist at the Met Office, Greg Dewhurst, described the phenomenon as “spectacular”.
He said, “To us here in the operations centre it looks like a water spout (a spiralling pillar of air), which is a little like a tornado but it forms over the water.”
“The cliff edge is helping to spin the wind around and we think this is why it forms quite quickly. The weather over the area is unsettled with heavy showers and these ingredients together help form the water spouts. Water spouts are not too uncommon during unsettled weather but make spectacular videos and photos.”
