Picture this. It’s July 11, 2013. You’re getting ready to head to the beach on vacation in a few days, and you’re flicking through the channels while you pack. You stumble upon the SyFy Channel, and you see a tornado throwing sharks at Tara Reid and Ian Ziering! You then ask, can this really happen?? And wonder if the beach vacation should be a Disney vacation instead?
So let’s address the elephant in the room. What is this crazy movie all about? A hurricane is barrelling toward Los Angeles, which causes significant storm surge flooding. The floodwaters are infested with Great White Sharks. As these sharks are swimming through the streets of LA, eating people, three tornadoes develop over the storm surge. Instantly, the sharks are sucked up into the funnels, and thus the sharknado is born! The cast of the movie is left to destroy the sharknadoes and save the city.
Now you may be wondering, can a sharknado actually happen? Well, the answer is “kind of.” You could technically have a “sharknado,” but it won’t be anything like the movie. First, you would need a waterspout. Waterspouts are pretty much tornadoes over water. Most of the time, they stay out to sea but can come on land and cause damage. The National Weather Service (NWS) issues tornado warnings for landfalling waterspouts. Per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Waterspouts fall into two categories: Tornadic waterspouts and fairweather waterspouts.
Waterspouts have been known to suck up a school of fish swimming close to the water’s surface. The fish, or in some cases frogs and worms, are then carried up into the storm’s updraft and can rain down miles away from where they originated. Theoretically, it is possible that small sharks could get pulled up into a waterspout’s updraft, which I guess would make it sharknado. However, this isn’t as dramatic as the movie would suggest. It is also unlikely that a 2,000 pound, 20 foot long Great White Shark will be sucked into the waterspout. So, go ahead pack for that beach vacation. If you see a waterspout, you shouldn’t have to worry about sharks being hurled at you. Although you might need to watch out for those pesky umbrellas that go dancing down the dunes.
https://youtu.be/BVXEcplcpUg?t=131
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Is a real-life ‘Sharknado’ possible?