This is the dramatic moment twin waterspouts formed off a beach in Florida.

Footage shows a funnel formation touching down from spiralling clouds over Manatee River on Sunday, June 22.

The twister whirled some 200 feet away from resident Jeni Scheid, 41, who was on a weekly boat trip with her family.

The mother-of-four said they had decided to head back to shore when the skies darkened before seeing the two whirling columns forming next to each other.

Jeni said: 'Our brains could not compute what we were seeing. It looked like something from a movie.

'All the kids were excited, loved it, wanted to get closer.'

The family docked safely in Bradenton, and continued to marvel at the natural phenomenon from a distance.

Austen Flannery, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay, said the dual waterspouts were 'fair weather waterspouts' that can happen during relatively calm weather.

Two types of tornado form at sea - tornadic waterspouts and fair-weather waterspouts. Tornadic waterspouts form from thunderstorms, just like land tornadoes, while fair-weather waterspouts are typically smaller and less powerful without the need for storms.

Both types of waterspout tornadoes are created when there is a strong difference in air pressure between the surface of the water and the air above it. This difference in pressure creates an updraft, which draws air from the surface of the water into the atmosphere. As the air rises, it cools and condenses, forming a cloud. The cloud can then rotate, forming a waterspout.

It is rare for waterspouts to cause severe damage. However, in August 2023 two tourists were killed and six injured when a waterspout tornado hit their boat on an estuary river in Phetchaburi, southern Thailand.