A black line appeared against the bright blue sky, shooting down from a cloud into the gulf.
"At first I thought it was an optical illusion because it was like a dark piece of sky with a light sky background," Weight said. "You could see through it."
Maybe it's a waterspout, he thought. That theory faded quickly. This was no funnel cloud.
Confused, the 73-year-old Clearwater resident pulled out his phone and took a couple of pictures.
He emailed them to the Times, attached with a note.
"Any idea what this was?"
Mike Clay, chief meteorologist at Bay News 9, didn't know what the black line was either. He shared the photos with several other weather experts.
