Image of an isolated system near South Manitou Island, in Lake Michigan’s Manitou Passage, courtesy of Don Sielaff.
By Pat Stinson
LEELANAU COUNTY, MICH. – Don Sielaff, a resident of Maple City, captured these images today of what appears to be either a waterspout, isolated snow squall or ghostly apparition touching Lake Michigan near South Manitou Island, part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) definition of a waterspout is: “a tornado over water” or “a small, relatively weak rotating column of air over water … beneath a towering cumulus cloud.”
The phenomenon was heading south at 2:30 p.m. on Halloween, as evidenced by the movement of the system in relation to the island’s lighthouse. It’s not a trick of digital manipulation. Sielaff took the photos with his iPhone 13 from a dead-end street in Glen Arbor with a view of Lake Michigan and the Manitou Passage.
What a treat to be in the right spot at the right time! Congratulations, Don.
Pat Stinson is the publisher and co-editor of Freshwater Reporter.
