Twin waterspouts were captured on video nearing the coast of Benidorm, a town along the east coast of Alicante, Spain, on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 28, 2013.
"There's a lot of cold aloft over relatively warm water, making the atmosphere unstable," AccuWeather Expert Senior Meteorologist Jim Andrews said. This type of unstable pattern can set the stage for the development of waterspouts.
Approximately 1 mile above the surface, the temperature was around zero degrees C, or 32 degrees F, on Thursday afternoon. The water temperature in the area was around 14 degrees C, or 57 degrees F.
The general rule of thumb for an environment capable of spawning waterspouts is a temperature difference of about 13 degrees C between the air temperature about 1 mile above the surface and the water temperature.