Greece, N.Y. -- "Seiche" is a French word meaning "to sway back and forth."
That's exactly what Lake Ontario did Saturday morning, leaving many scratching their heads.
"It was amazing, a surreal site," said resident James Montanus.
"I've lived on the lake all of my life and I've never seen this," said resident Therese Feller.
No, it wasn't a shark residents along the lake woke up to Saturday morning, but a rare sight.
The 13WHAM Weather Authority explains the phenomenon as a “seiche.” A seiche occurs in lakes, bays, and harbors, when we see a changes in air pressure and strong winds . This causes the water to be displaced from one portion of a shoreline and resulting in flooding in another location.
"And all of a sudden I saw, it was almost as if I was on the ocean," Feller said. "It was like a tide that was going out."
"Literally the boats were on a sandbar, but it was really cool. I thought I was dreaming," Feller said.
13WHAM obtained time lapse video of the occurrence. The video shows the water appear to get sucked out like water draining in a bathtub.
"There was hundreds and hundreds of feet of exposed sand, running perpendicular to the shore line and then within just a few minutes," Montanus said. "The water started rushing back in."
As quickly as it went out, it returned at a higher level.
"There was a difference of four feet of lake level in approximately five minutes," Montanus said. "It was a very dramatic thing to witness."
Viewers tell us they've seen a seiche sighting a few times in the past few decades, but who knows when we'll see one again.
