Canada's first tornado of 2020 spotted on Vancouver Island
Certainly a very rare sight in British Columbia: A weak tornado, caught on camera in the Vancouver Island community of North Saanich, is Canada's first of 2020 (see it in the video above).
Environment and Climate Change Canada says the tornado, Ring footage of which was sent in to the agency Thursday, "appears" to be a weak and short-lived landspout tornado. It has been tentatively rated an EF-0, with winds in the 105-137 km/h range.
"The unsettled conditions under which this tornado and cells of heavy showers occurred will diminish late this afternoon," the agency said on Twitter Thursday afternoon.
There are no reports of serious damage from the twister as yet, but at some point in its passage through the North Saanich neighbourhood, it appears to send a trampoline tumbling upward through the air, only to fall back to earth off camera.
Resident Lindsay Cristante described the twister as a "big tunnel of sand" which forced her and her two children to seek refuge. As for the trampoline, she told the Times Colonist its frame was broken in the incident.
Canada marks, on average, 62 tornadoes per year. British Columbia is actually the least tornado-prone province on average, with some 0.6 tornadoes per year, meaning that some years none will be reported.
