Water Spout Spotted Near PWERB Jobsite

At approximately 11:10 a.m. this morning the electrical contractor, APG Electric, interrupted our job site meeting on the radio to let us know that he’d spotted a large funnel cloud in Old Tampa Bay (just North of the Courtney Campbell Causeway) heading what appeared to be straight towards our job site for the new Pinellas County Emergency Responders Building near US 19 and Drew Street.   We quickly went outside to verify what he had told us, and Assistant Superintendent Troy Kerr brought along his camera. 

 

In less than 60 seconds all of the concrete crew were down off the shear wall forms and headed for cover, including our camera man!  The water spout continued to move directly towards us, appearing to grow rapidly in size with every passing second.  Thankfully, it evaporated as soon as it hit land.  Having seen first hand the size of the spout, I was truly amazed when I discovered that it was still well over 2 miles due east of our project site when this photograph was taken. 

Naturally, in less than 60 seconds after it had evaporated, every man was right back to work!

According to the website Tampabay.com , water spouts were reported near Indian Rocks beach at 10:46 a.m., offshore of Clearwater at 10:49 a.m., east of Clearwater at 11:04 a.m., north of the Howard Frankland Bridge in Old Tampa Bay, near the Courtney Campbell Parkway and an undisclosed time and west of Town 'n Country at 11:23 a.m.