PHOTOS: Deadly tornado in Manitoba, increased to EF-3 rating
Intense thunderstorms rolled through southern Manitoba Thursday evening, prompting tornado warnings and producing at least one twister. The tornado occurred near Alexander, Man. around 5:40 p.m. local time.
Environment Canada first confirmed the tornado on Twitter, then assigned it an EF-0 rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale Friday, with winds in the 90-150 km/h range.
As of August 17th, the tornado was updated to an EF-3 rating. Teams from The Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) and the University of Manitoba collected data from the tornado site and determined that the winds were approximately 260 km/h and caused a lot more damage than initially assessed.
According to an RCMP report, there were two fatalities and one injury. Two vehicles were significantly displaced, trees and power lines were snapped, and farms were damaged.
Visuals of the tornado and severe storms can be found below. The storms also produced frequent lightning, quarter-sized hail, damaging wind gusts, and torrential rainfall, leading to localized flooding in some areas.
Thumbnail courtesy of Kyle Brittain.
