Stunning Videos: Water Spout in Australia

Dramatic footage was captured from a helicopter by Australia's Channel 7 on Monday of a series of powerful waterspouts in the ocean north of Sydney, Australia, off the New South Wales coast.

Channel 7 shows a series of powerful waterspouts near the coastal suburb of Terrigal, on Australia's New South Wales coast. Several powerful columns of swirling air could be seen blasting along the water's surface near the coastline. Channel 7 claimed the spouts reached heights of up to 600 metres (nearly two thousand feet), but dissipated as they neared land. The natural wonders came as strong winds and heavy rain also lashed other parts of the state, causing flash flooding and traffic chaos in Sydney.

"It looked pretty impressive," one local resident remarked to Channel 7. "I wouldn't have liked to have been in a boat out there."