: I was sitting here at work doddling around reading stuff and I just
: remembered what I DID do when I spotted a small (~50-ft) tall
: water spout whipping up the water on the good old North
: Saskatchewan River: I tried to paddle into it. Sadly, the water
: spout dissipated before I could get into the spray it was
: kicking up. There never was any real danger since it was just a
: wee lad of a spout...I guess you could say that it was a
: "sprout of a spout". It occurred at the confluence of
: a creek that cuts from the east deeply through the high river
: bank to flow into the river from a westerly direction. Winds
: from the northwest were blowing hard and channeling through the
: ravine that day and mixed with winds coming from the northeast
: which funnelled through the deep river valley. When this happens
: the winds tend to accelerate as they are squeezed through the
: valley. We get some very interesting wind patterns because the
: river valley is so deep: sometimes they to blow in weird
: directions. That was also the day I saw several wind-generated
: three foot standing waves in a spot that is normally flat. I
: opted not to paddle upstream through the waves since I would
: have been stuck trying to run through them upstream and stayed
: in them rather longer than I would have liked. I wanted to run
: through them during my downstream run and play a little but when
: I returned, the winds had died down and the waves were gone,
: leaving the usual flat water.

: Robert N Pruden

Sounds like a dust devil on the water, water devil? Looks like a mini-tornado but hasn't the power.

Bill H.