An Assessment of Waterspout Frequencies along the U. S. East and Gulf Coasts

Ship reports dating back to the 1880's and Storm Data (1959–73) are used to assess the threat posed by waterspouts to existing and proposed floating offshore nuclear power plants along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts. In particular, it is found that the primary warm axis of the Gulf Stream and large coastal bays and inland waterways are favored regions of waterspout occurrence. A list of the ten most active coastal regions, in terms of reported waterspouts per unit area, is synthesized. It is shown that after the Florida Keys, the most prolific waterspout region is the entire southeast Florida Coast (Stuart to Homestead). Tampa Bay has had the greatest number of damaging waterspouts.