Cubans spot a possible waterspout in the Bay of Cárdenas

Residents of Cárdenas, in the province of Matanzas, captured images on Monday of an atmospheric formation resembling a waterspout over the waters of the bay, around 4:52 PM.

The aviation meteorologist Henry Delgado Manzor, a member of the Cuban Meteorology and Speleology societies, gathered citizen reports in the Meteorología_Cuba group on Facebook: “Social media users report the sighting of a waterspout that occurred this afternoon, approximately at 4:52 p.m., in the bay of Cárdenas, province of Matanzas.”

The independent communicator Christian Arbolaez also published several photographs of the phenomenon and noted that the images depict "a funnel-shaped column descending from the clouds to the sea."

The photographs, taken from various points in the urban and coastal area of Cárdenas, depict a narrow and elongated column beneath a thick layer of gray clouds, visually resembling an atmospheric funnel. However, the technical distinction is important: a funnel cloud only becomes a waterspout when it makes contact with the surface of the water, a fact that the images alone do not allow us to confirm.

The testimonies from residents in the comments on the posts provide additional details about the sighting. A neighbor shared photographs taken from the Brisas del Mar neighborhood. "It lasted for about 20 minutes before it disintegrated," she wrote.

In June 2025, a waterspout was sighted near Varadero, on the western side of the Hicacos Peninsula, and remained visible for about ten minutes, according to Delgado Manzor himself. In August 2023, another similar phenomenon was documented near the Maya Lighthouse and the coastal community of Carboneras, also in Matanzas, lasting an estimated eight minutes without making landfall.

The bay of Cárdenas itself was already the scene of a waterspout in October 2020, which was then associated with a severe local storm that did not cause any damage, as reported by Delgado Manzor at that time.

The Meteorological Institute of Cuba had not issued any official confirmation regarding the phenomenon that occurred this Monday by the time this report was published.