Waterspout in Cornwall seen off Trebarwith Strand beach near Tintagel

A rare waterspout was seen off the coast near Tintagel on Thursday morning.

Steve Rumming saw the phenomenon off Trebarwith Strand beach around 09:40 BST while he was walking his dog along the cliff.

He said: "We've never seen this before. It was great to see it although I did move out of its way pretty sharpish."

Waterspouts are tornados over water, a BBC meteorologist explained.

Mr Rumming said: "It had just poured down and dried up when this was spotted at the end.

"It was fairly calm then all of a sudden it got blustery when it came towards the cliffs from the sea."

Meteorologist and BBC weather forecaster Dan Holley said: "Essentially a waterspout is just a tornado but over water.

"Both begin life as a funnel cloud - a rotating column of air underneath a shower or thunderstorm - which, once it's extended to the ground becomes a tornado if it's on land, or named a waterspout if over water."

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