Harmless waterspout causes panic in Labuan

LABUAN: A waterspout in the waters off Labuan today caused some panic among some inhabitants of this duty-free-island.
It lasted for less than 10 minutes, but it was more than enough time to frighten some islanders.
The spout formed over the waters several hundred metres from the beach at 11.45am and disappeared without causing any damage.
But before it disappeared, the Labuan Meteorological Service Department was "inundated with phone calls from frantic citizens".
Labuan Meteorological Service Department head Donis Gunting, when contacted, said the spout was caused by instability in the atmosphere.

"The incident this morning was a fair-weather waterspout," he said.
There are two kinds of waterspouts, fair weather and tornadic. Tornadic waterspouts are tornadoes that happen to develop over water. They spawn from strong thunderstorms with rotating updrafts.
Fair-weather waterspouts do not form from thunderstorms. The surrounding wind is usually weak, so they typically don't travel very far. — Bernama