Mallorca thunderstorm: Several waterspouts swirl in tandem

Four waterspouts were spotted simultaneously whirling away off Mallorca's coast on Friday September 16th 2022.

The waterspouts were all captured in the video above near Cala d'Or, in Mallorca, a popular destination for holidaymakers. They formed as a result of thunderstorms that swept across the island, as seen on the WeatherRadar below.

The waterspouts did not cause any problems at sea, and did not move over land either. Some villages and towns on the island did experience heavy rainfall and flooding from the associated thunderstorms however.

Waterspouts, by definition, are a type of non-mesocyclonic tornado that form through warm, rising surface air. They can also develop over land, and are termed landspouts, but both tend to be weaker than their mesocylonic tornado sibling.

Alternatively, mesocyclonic tornadoes, in a nutshell, form within supercellular thunderstorms from strong, rotating updrafts with a significant wind shear, regardless of the surface that they develop over.