The Great Lakes Should Be on the Lookout for Waterspouts

In the unlikely event it rains fish in Detroit and Cleveland today, it’s probably not some deity’s weird act of rage but the result of waterspouts on the Great Lakes.

In the wake of a cold front sweeping over the region, these ghostly spinners could appear Thursday on Lake Erie, the National Weather Service says in a “hazardous weather outlook.” The International Centre For Waterspout Research is also predicting ‘spouts Thursday as cool air blankets the lakes. Here’s a snap from the center’s experimental prediction tool, which relies on something called the “Szilagyi Waterspout Index” (red and yellow areas have high chances of formation):