Waterspouts spotted off east coast of Singapore

By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia
12 June 2007



SINGAPORE: More waterspouts have been spotted in Singapore.

Callers to the MediaCorp News hotline reported seeing several off the east coast.

There was no calm before the storm, as dark clouds over SAF Yacht Club at Changi spun into tower-high water spouts.

And eyewitnesses say they saw more than one spinning off the waters of Singapore.

"From where I stood, it was about 10 storeys high. There were three of them. They were about a few metres away from each other. There was one more that was forming. We could see water spinning at the top but it wasn't fully formed yet at the bottom," says Ariff Wahid from the SAF Yacht Club.

"There were a lot of waterspouts coming near to the club. But actually it was very far. It started to disappear half an hour later. It was spinning very fast towards one of the big ships there," says Fadilah Hajis, a member of staff at the SAF Yacht Club.

About 20 people including staff and guests at the club spotted the phenomenon from as early as 10 in the morning.

Most said it lasted for about half an hour before heavy rain took over.

The last time something similar was reported was at East Coast Park in late May 2007.

The National Environment Agency confirmed Tuesday's sighting. - CNA/yy