Rare natural phenomena, known as water spouts, have been spotted from the Kent shoreline.

The spinning vortexes were seen above the sea, off the Herne Bay coast, this morning amid changing weather.

A water spout is similar to a tornado, except touching bodies of water rather than the ground.

When the spinning vortex of air remains airborn without touching land or sea, they are known as funnel clouds.

However, as soon as they touch the ground they are tornadoes, or water spouts if they come down over water.

A video shows a column of air and water amid a number of wind turbines in the Thames Estuary, just north of Herne Bay.

Water spouts are very rare of UK coasts, and are more commonly seen in the US and tropical areas.

This is the first time this year water spouts have been so visible off the Kent coast, however funnel clouds have been spotted increasingly frequently.

Most recently, one was spotted over Westgate amid three days of stormy weather and a number of bizarre cloud formations.

Residents were amazed to see the strange cloud formations and rain cascading over the landscape on the same patch of sea where today’s water spout formed.