Close, but no cigar

I reconnected with my husband's cousin yesterday, which reminded me of one of my favorite days in weather. It was during a trip I took with my wonderful groom down to Miami for his cousin's wedding. Of course, being in the place where he grew up, he took me to all the places he remembered from when he was a child, and we explored some of the geeky tourist attractions. It was after visiting the National Hurricane Center and while we were exploring Key Biscayne, that I discovered something spectacular in the sky and begged him to "PULL OVER!" with jaw dropped and arm outstretched, pointing toward the sky. There it was, clear as day (not a clear day), a powerfully rotating column of air in the sky!!!Storm Report for June 13, 2008
It was actually reported as a water spout that went ashore. Thanks to a ridiculous amount of curves and palm trees, my view of the best part was obscured, but I saw it reaching down further than in the picture. Unfortunately, this is all I got. What a day though!!! The only other times that compare would be early on while sitting by a field with my boyfriend back in 1989 watching as the skies churned and dropped funnel clouds, 3 tornadoes were reported on that October 1st, causing damage even as close as outside the video store we were holed up in during the worst of the storm.

Conyers-area historical tornado activity is slightly above Georgia state average. It is 89% greater than the overall U.S. average.
OCT 01, 1989 030 1806 F2 247
OCT 01, 1989 031 1830 F1 247
OCT 01, 1989 032 1844 F2 247

The next time was also in June, but it was in 2007, when I was with Peg and Mel and the crew trying to chase naders. We came across a wicked low precip supercell near Murdo, SD, which dropped several needle funnels as we sat and watched. It never dropped anything more substantial for us, but the same system did produce a very picturesque tornado over the Badlands, which we had just passed.

Ahh, yes, SDS is bad.
~Dewdrop