Watch: Waterspout wreaks havoc on dock in Washington
The winds flipped over a canoe, pulled a small boat from one side of the dock to the other, and slammed a plastic basket into the sliding glass door.
Watch: Waterspout seen moving over lake in Lake Samish, WA.
A waterspout was spotted moving over a lake in Lake Samish, WA just southeast of Bellingham Monday evening. (Video: Amy Ping)
BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- A wet and blustery day in the Pacific Northwest Monday turned quite exciting that evening as a waterspout moved ashore and caused some mayhem along a dock.
Mike and Amy Ping noticed the swirling winds over Lake Samish near Bellingham, Washington and they had several cameras rolling as the waterspout approached their home.
Mike Ping had his camera rolling from their bedroom window.
"Just happened to be filming because it was really windy out and the rain was hitting the windows," Mike Ping told FOX 13 Seattle. "And then we saw the waterspout form and it came across and lifted up the aluminum rowboat and flung it across the docks. And then a 16-foot aluminum canoe went flying up in the air — dented the canoe pretty good and then broke a concrete bench."
Meanwhile, Amy Ping was watching the storm from the living room and grabbed her camera.
"I wasn’t too nervous about it until the boats started moving and got thrown toward the house… and then I got nervous," Amy Ping said.
The twister also damaged quite a few fence boards; flung kids toys and chairs and slammed a plastic basket into the sliding glass door.
"During that 5-minute period (of the storm), it was intense," Mike Ping said.
He also noted the waterspout tossed sand from their small beach and blasted it into the side of their house.
"There's no damage to the house," Mike said. "(But) there’s a whole bunch of sand that thrown into the side of the house."
The couple said they've lived in the house for four years, and Mike has lived on Lake Samish for 21 years.
"Never seen anything like that here," he said.
The National Weather Service in Seattle confirmed Tuesday that the storm was in fact a waterspout, though would not give it a tornado classification given the "rapid dissipation of the waterspout as it came onshore." Thus, the twister will not be given a designation on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
Washington averages about 2 tornadoes a year somewhere in the state.