THE Salerno coastline in south-western Italy was hit by a huge waterspout on Tuesday – watch dramatic video footage of the huge waterspout as it moves dangerously close to land.
The whirling waterspout formed off the Italian coast before making its way on land and striking the city of Salerno. The shocking video captures the waterspout in the sea, moments before it makes landfall on the south-western city.
Video footage was captured at around 15:00 local time, according to officials.
Witnesses have also said the waterspout lifted containers off the ground and broke wire ropes used to moor a ship.
There have been no reports of injuries.
A waterspout is defined as a whirling column of air and water mist, according to NOAA’s National Weather Service.
The NOAA explains that waterspouts can either be categorised as fair weather waterspouts and tornadic waterspouts.
“They have the same characteristics as a land tornado. They are associated with severe thunderstorms, and are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning.
“If a waterspout moves onshore. Some of them can cause significant damage and injuries to people.
“Typically, fair weather waterspouts dissipate rapidly when they make landfall, and rarely penetrate far inland.”
The NOAA states: “Tornadic waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water, or move from land to water.
The incident is just the latest in a series of dramatic climatic conditions affecting Europe this Autumn.
Storms in Italy have killed 17 people and destroyed 14 million trees.
That figure excluded 12 further fatalities in Sicily, where nine people in two families died in a house outside Palermo after a river burst its banks.
