Gary Nelson, age 14, of North Platte, Tob., for his question:

Can a tornado occur over water?

The angry little twisters can strike the earth on land or sea. When they are born at sea we call them waterspouts. For, instead of hauling up a dense column of dust and debris, they haul up a column of water and spray.

The twisters born on land usually occur over our plains and prairies, far from the ocean. The paths they take are narrow and only a few miles long. The path of destruction is usually less than a quarter mile wide and at most 40 miles long. They advance at speeds from 20 to 40 miles an hour. They always wear themselves out long before they get anywhere near the sea.

Watersprouts, or sea‑going tornados, follow the very same pattern. They form off the eastern shores of the United States, in the Gulf of Mexico and off China and Japan. These watery cousins of the dusty twister wear themselves out before reaching the land.