Waterspout appears over Shuswap Lake near Salmon Arm

A Shuswap woman was standing on her deck when she noticed an unusual sight over Shuswap Lake.

Faye Donald, who lives in Sunnybrae, snapped a photo of a waterspout near Salmon Arm and posted the picture in a popular Shuswap Facebook group.

She's never seen one before, she said. The photo was taken at roughly 5 a.m. Saturday morning July 4.

"It was definitely unusual," Donald said.

"Waterspouts are almost always produced by a swiftly growing cumulus cloud. They may assume many shapes and often occur in a series, called a waterspout family, produced by the same upward-moving air current. Waterspouts are closely related to other atmospheric phenomena such as tornadoes, whirlwinds, and fire storms," according to Britannica.

"The main visible feature of a waterspout—the classic inverted cone or funnel—consists mostly of freshwater droplets produced locally by condensation of water vapour."

They're more commonly found in the tropics, according to the National Geographic Society.

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