End of the holidays under stormy skies. Conditions over the Baltic favour waterspouts

- The final weeks of the holiday season will bring weather to the Polish coast that can turn beach idleness into a spectacle of nature within an hour. Poland remains under the influence of a shallow low-pressure trough with atmospheric fronts, and favourable conditions for the development of waterspouts will appear along the coastal belt - forecasts Gazeta Morska and Daily Mare meteorologist Mariusz Jasłowski, editor-in-chief of the Meteo24.com.pl weather service. It is worth knowing where the phenomenon comes from, why it has been seen over the Baltic more and more often in recent years, and what to do when a spinning funnel rises over the water.

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18 august 2026   |   11:39   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. Mariusz Jasłowski

A low-pressure trough and storms until the end of the month

The current synoptic situation offers little respite: atmospheric fronts tied to the trough are bringing convective rainfall and thunderstorms, and in the coming days humid, highly varied and warm air from north-western and south-western Europe will keep flowing over Poland and the waters of the Baltic.

- August looks set to bring highly varied and unstable weather. Air temperatures across the country will fluctuate between +16 and +20 degrees Celsius, locally reaching as much as +25 to +30 degrees. We can expect convective rainfall and thunderstorms of variable and strong activity more and more often - Mariusz Jasłowski forecasts.

Sailors, fishermen and shipowners should pay particular attention to the wind. Over the sea itself, and in areas of convective rainfall and storms, moderate and strong winds from variable directions will make themselves felt and may locally cause damage. In the longer term, the weather will be shaped by a subdued flow of air masses off the Atlantic combined with warm air from changing directions - a pattern that may bring further dynamic shifts with every week.

The coastal belt: conditions favouring waterspouts

For coastal observers, however, the most intriguing element of the forecast is a different one.

- Along the coastal belt, favourable conditions will appear for the development of waterspouts or condensation funnels in their early stages - Mariusz Jasłowski indicates.

He is referring to the early stage of the phenomenon, known in meteorology as a funnel cloud: a rotating column stretching from the cloud base towards the water surface, which does not always manage to reach it. When conditions align and the funnel touches the sea, a fully-fledged waterspout is born - the phenomenon that has been electrifying beachgoers on the Polish coast for several seasons now.

How a waterspout forms

The mechanism is textbook simple and intimately tied to the sea. The key is the temperature difference between the Baltic's surface, warmed through the summer to more than 19 degrees Celsius in places, and cooler air flowing in at higher levels of the atmosphere. That combination destabilises the atmosphere: strong updraughts and downdraughts form within cumulonimbus clouds, and when the cloud can no longer contain them, a vortex begins to stretch down towards the water. Once it touches the sea surface, water vapour condenses and shapes the visible funnel, which draws up sea spray.

Importantly, the waterspouts observed over the Baltic are overwhelmingly of the so-called non-tornadic kind - much weaker and shorter-lived than classic tornadoes. They rarely reach the shore, and when they do, they usually weaken almost instantly over land. That does not change the fact that for small vessels on the water they pose a real hazard.

Seen more and more often in Polish skies

Statistically, Europe records an average of around 160 waterspouts a year, and the southern Baltic ranks among the waters particularly prone to the phenomenon. The Polish coast has seen seasons that entered the annals of observation: in August last year, more than a dozen waterspouts were observed simultaneously off the Polish and Danish coasts, eight of them forming at the same time within a single storm zone, with funnels taking shape off Darłówko, Ustka, Łazy, Rowy and Jarosławiec. Footage from those days travelled across the whole of Poland.

Are waterspouts genuinely becoming more frequent? The answer is more nuanced than social media suggests. Historical statistics have recorded a few such events a year off the Polish coast for over a century and show no sharp rise - what has grown dramatically is the number of observations, as nearly every beachgoer now carries a camera and footage reaches the internet within minutes. At the same time, meteorologists do not rule out that a warming climate, the Baltic holding its summer warmth for longer and more frequent storms conducive to strong convective phenomena will genuinely increase the frequency of waterspouts in the decades ahead. The coming weeks, with a warm sea and an unstable atmosphere, are precisely that type of setting.

What to do when a funnel rises over the water

For an observer on the beach, a waterspout is above all a spectacle - and with common sense it can be safely admired from the shore. The basic rules: do not enter the water while the phenomenon is visible, do not approach the waterline if the funnel is moving towards it, and remember that a waterspout usually comes with a thunderstorm bringing gusty wind, downpours and sometimes hail.

From a deck, things look entirely different. Sailors, motorboaters and anglers should treat announcements of waterspout-favouring conditions like any warning of strong convective phenomena: check the forecast and rain radar before heading out, give cumulonimbus clouds a wide berth, and if a forming funnel is spotted, steer a course perpendicular to its direction of movement and seek shelter in port as quickly as possible. Until the end of the holidays, with a warm sea and an unstable atmosphere, several more such situations may occur off the Polish coast

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trąby wodne trąby wodne na Bałtyku pogoda nad morzem pogoda na wakacje morze bałtyckie

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