Joey Mole, who had never seen a waterspout before Monday night, is credited as the source of a photograph so incredible that its authenticity might come into question.
However, AccuWeather's Jesse Ferrell claims the photo is legit.
Actually, Ferrell wrote on his blog: "I'm 95 percent sure of the photo's authenticity, which is about as sure as I get without taking the picture myself."
The waterspout came ashore north of Tampa, Florida, and also was photographed by others.
But Mole's photograph from his deck in Safety Harbor--"My backyard!" he exclaimed on Facebook--stands out for reasons that need no explanation.
The towering waterspout made landfall 250 feet from Mole's dock and passed over his neighbor's home, two houses down.
Ferrell, after seeing the image copied and posted on social media sites without adequate sourcing (a frustratingly common occurrence on Facebook and Twitter), finally tracked down Mole as the original source.
"I messaged Joey on Facebook and he was nice enough to email me the original photo, from which I extracted the EXIF data below, proving that he had the original, and he also gave me the video from his phone which I show above," Ferrell wrote.
The EXIF data can be viewed on Ferrell's blog post, which also contains links to other news sources that have posted waterspout photos from Monday night's storm.
Below is cellphone video footage also captured by Mole. Warning: There is some profanity, which, under the circumstances, is understandable:
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