Hurricane Irma’s winds are so strong and its pressure is so low that it’s sucking water into the core of the storm, the Washington Post reports.
The phenomenon was first seen this weekend in the Bahamas, when a resident posted a video on Twitter that depicted a beach with no water. The video showed a patch of damp sand with conch shells and docks.
The Washington Post added that on Saturday, the wind on Long Island in the Bahamas was blowing from southeast to northwest, and therefore, on the north west side of the shoreline, the water was getting blown away from the shoreline.
Wayne Neely, a forecaster with the Bahamas Department of Meteorology that this particular phenomenon also took place during a 1936 hurricane affecting Acklins Island in the Bahamas.
“What happened in this case was that the low pressure of the hurricane pushed down on the water in the eye and eye wall of the hurricane which is a low pressure system at at the center of the storm,” Neely said in his post.
TIME reports that Neely states the water will return shortly. Furthermore, those who live in the area should be mindful, as the water could return abruptly.
“But in the Long Island and Exuma cases care must be taken in this case because the water often returns with even greater fury.”
The Washington Post also adds that the jarring disappearance of the ocean could be attributed to hurricane “bulge,” referring to the centre of the storm being so low pressure that water is actually drawn upwards. People took to Twitter to Sunday to reveal that the same thing happened on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Hurricane Irma is a violent Atlantic storm that’s began in the Caribbean Islands on Wednesday and has since made its way across Cuba, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and is currently wreaking havoc on Florida.
Two fatalities have been confirmed, and the National Hurricane Centre has been warning residents of the potential for massive storm surge taking over the streets. It’s likely that the storm will affect the Tampa-St. Petersburg region by early Monday morning.