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water spout noun A very local cloudburst or a flash flood produced by one.

1849 Lanman Alleghany Mts 53-54 Among the matters touched upon in our conversation was a certain mysterious “water-spout,” of which I had heard a great deal among the people in my journeying, and which was said to have fallen upon Trail Mountain. I again inquired into the particulars, and Major Williams replied as follows: “This water-spout story has always been a great botheration to me. The circumstance occurred several years ago. A number of hunters were spending the night in the very ravine where this shanty now stands, where, about midnight, they heard a tremendous roaring in the air, and a large torrent of water fell upon their camp and swept it, with all of its effects and inmates, about a dozen yards from the spot where they had planted their poles. There were three hunters, and one of them was severely injured on the head by the water, and all of them completely drenched. They were of course much alarmed at the event, and concluded that a spring farther up the mountain had probably broken away; but when morning came they could find no evidence of a spring, and every where above their camping place the ground was perfectly dry, while on the lower side it was completely saturated. They were now perplexed to a marvellous degree, and returned to a lower country impressed with the idea that a water-spout had burst over their heads.” I of course attempted no explanation of this phenomenon, but Mr. Hubbard gave it as his opinion that if the affair did occur, it originated from a whirlwind, which might have taken up the water from some neighboring river, and dashed it by the merest accident upon the poor hunters. .  1939 Hall Coll (Deep Creek NC) They had came a water spout in time and drifted in a big lot of timber, spruce, and hemlock and stuff ... They'd been a water spout a cloud bust put there in time and run in, just a awful lot of spruce and timber. 2002 Myers Best Yet Stories 199 When we played in the river (ice cold to me today) our parents warned us to listen for a “roar” in the water. Many times water spouts would hit high up in the mountains while the sun might be shining at our place. This caused the water to rise rapidly and dangerously for us.