Home 
Waterspouts which are locally called “ buhawi” are a rare weather phenomenon in Cebu province.
They have the force of a tornado and the capacity to do great damage.
Wednesday’s sighting of a waterspout off the waters of Mactan island lasted 10 minutes but ended without incident.
“I know of only three times that a waterspout occurred in Cebu since I started working at the weather station,”said Oscar Tabada, chief meteorologist of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Atmospheric Services Administration (Pag-asa) office in Mactan.
“One was in Olango island while another occurred over SRP (South Road Properties) and the waterspout yesterday (Wednesday).”
The waterspout was sighted over Mactan Island at 4:50 p.m. Wednesday about 10 to 15 kilometers from the Mactan weather station near barangay Punta Engaño.
“The personnel on duty observed it as a very dark, funnel-shaped column,” said Tabada. He said it lasted about 10 minutes.
“The waterspout is a tornado over water. There are two types of tornado— the cyclonic or the one which occurs during a storm and has a mother tornado, while the convective tornado forms during a thunderstorm, where warm air is drawn and makes a vertical development into the clouds,” he explained.
Tabada said the waterspout could have been dangerous if bancas were sailing in the Mactan channel at the time.
“The precursor sign is thunderstorm clouds, the cumulus clouds. These are clouds that are circular in form. If the people see this kind of clouds, they should expect a tornado could occur. But these have a short lifespan of about 30 minutes,” he said.
Tabada recalled the havoc caused by a tornado over Talisay City in July 31, 2004 at around 9 p.m.
“The tornado was black and gray. I saw what I thought were cement bags drawn upward by the strong winds, which were estimated at 300 kilometers per hour,” he said.
The next day, several houses had no more roofs.
As of 2 a.m. yesterday, the weather bureau reported a shallow low pressure area 520 kilometers east of Northern Mindanao along the Intertropical Convergence Zone that is affecting Visayas and Mindanao.
