BA Video: Attack of the Waterspout!

A couple of weeks ago, a waterspout formed off the coast of a tropical beach in Brazil. The panic it evoked was merited … kinda sorta. Here’s why:

I’ve seen dust devils in person many times (driving from California to Colorado years back, we saw a half dozen, one that was so big we were kilometers away when we first spotted it), and pictures of them on Mars(!). But I’ve never seen a tornado in the wild myself, or a waterspout … or an ash devil, or a fire tornado.

Y’know what? I’m not too upset by that. Watching them on video is just fine by me.

Watch more of Slate’s Bad Astronomy videos with Phil Plait.