Ghost, waterspout or snow squall?

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.

First photo shows the phenomenon north of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse in the Manitou Passage. Photo by Don Sielaff.

Second photo clearly shows the phenomenon is now south of the lighthouse on South Manitou Island, part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Photo by Don Sielaff.

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.