Tornado or Dragon playing in Water

This is the photographic evidence of natural phenomenon appearing on August 30, 2006 over the confluence of the Tole Bassac and the Mekong River at Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It startled onlookers, Cambodian people and foreign tourists who saw this rare event. Its height is about 40 meters.

After rare natural phenomenon ended, the different opinions raised that it is like dragon playing water. And they thought that it bodes ill or well for Cambodia. For scientists, they think differently from traditional belief. They said that it was the supernatural phenomenon causing by the force of swirling wind called a tornado-do-like funnel cloud. No one was suffering from the pressure of the event.

The Cambodia Daily was quoted as saying “Rumors that a mythical white crocodile had appeared in the same spot before the end of the Lon Nol regime in 1975 boded ill in the minds of many. In 1997, during another time of political turmoil, the Hale-Bopp comet’s appearance in the night sky over Phnom Penh triggered rumors that a crocodile star had brought another war.”

Photographer who took a spot of cloud printed more copies of photo to be sold out. They earned more profits from this event. Phnom Penh residents and tourists who did not see it on scene bought photo, which costs from 1500 to 2000 Riel each.

Seth Vannareth, head of government’s meteorology department, said that Cambodian tornadoes, both on land and over water, have been recorded in 1998, 2000 and 2002 and on April 19 of this year, when a twister in Sihanoukville displaced a house and injured several children. She added that the absence of a radar-equipped weather service and Cambodia’s year-round humidity make predicting when and where tornadoes will occur very difficult.

Tetsuya Murayama of the institute’s Science and Mathematics Center said that “one of the characteristics of the tornado is that it must form from the cloud, and then touch the ground.”