CLIMATE CHANGE WILL INCREASE THEM

Environment Canada issues waterspout watch for much of Great Lakes region

(Courtesy: Gavin van Camp)

Abby O'Brien, CTV News Toronto

 Multi-Platform Writer
Published Monday, September 26, 2022

Environment Canada (EC) has issued waterspout watches for much of the Great Lakes region in Ontario Monday.

In a statement issued Monday morning, EC said waterspout watches are in effect for a large portion of the Great Lakes, including Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, Lake Simcoe, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.

In most regions, the waterspout watches have been issued alongside warnings for strong winds.




Environment Canada (EC) has issued waterspout watches for much of the Great Lakes region in Ontario Monday.According to Environment Canada, waterspouts can form during unstable conditions when cool air moves over relatively warmer water, resulting in what looks like a tornado of water, hovering over the surface.

“Mariners are urged to take all necessary precautions and prepare for the possibility of waterspout activity,” EC said Monday. “Postpone voyage or seek safe harbour if possible.”

Waterspouts are generally isolated in nature, ECCC says, but can occur in families of two or more. The agency says they are “short-lived” in nature, typically lasting approximately 20 minutes or less.

On Aug. 29, a tornado that initially developed as a waterspout over Lake Huron caused minor damage in Lambton and Bruce counties.

 

First significant Great Lakes waterspout outbreak of the season

Digital Writers
The Weather Network

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Monday, September 26th 2022,  - Cooler air spreading into central Canada will heighten the threat for waterspouts, thunderstorms, and windy conditions this

Multi-day threat for waterspouts across the Great Lakes

The first significant Great Lakes waterspout outbreak of the season is upon us, as a broad upper level trough creeps across Ontario this week bringing the threat for multiple days of waterspouts, pesky rain showers and isolated pop-up thunderstorms. A chillier temperature trend will also mark the first half of the week, with the threat for frost lingering outside of urban areas. More more on what the final week of September will bring, read below.

Visit our Complete Guide to Fall 2022 for an in-depth look at the Fall Forecast, tips to plan for it and much more!

This week: Pesky rain showers and waterspouts

The fall season certainly wasted no time kicking into high gear, as temperatures took a significant tumble last week, remaining cooler as we start this final week of September.

"These types of weather patterns will bring a little bit of everything including sunshine, cloud, showers and thunderstorms," says Kelly Sonnenburg, a meteorologist at The Weather Network. "Temperatures are crisp, but can always temporarily warm when the sun shines. They make it extremely difficult to plan your outfit for the day."

Along with the cooler, early October-like temperatures, will be the threat for waterposuts as an upper level low pressure system tracks over the warm waters of the Great Lakes sparking the risk for waterspouts to develop.

According to Sonnenburg, this will be the first significant waterspout outbreak of the season across the Great Lakes.

As of Monday morning, numerous waterspouts had already be spotted across Lake Erie.

This specific weather pattern is expected to stick around through Wednesday before pushing east and making way for the return of drier conditions late week and into the weekend with high pressure.

The next round of precipitation expected early next week could be the remnant moisture from Hurricane Ian, however this is not a complete guarantee as not all long range computer models have it tracking into the Great Lakes.

A milder pattern is expected to return and dominate during early and mid October.

WATCH: Waterspout spotted over Erie amid multi-day threat for Great Lakes

Large waterspout spins across Erie as outbreak likely for Great Lakes

A waterspout was caught on camera along the shore of Lake Erie. Watch dark clouds move slowly over the open waters.

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT 

Abbott says top Malaysian leaders suspected pilot of MH370

THIS IS A CONSPIRACY THEORY OF THE MALAYSIAN STATE 

ENABLED BY THE RIGHT WING EX AUSSIE PM (HEY YA) ABBOTT

TRISTAN LAVALETTE Associated Press•February 19, 2020



Australia Malaysian Plane
FILE - In this March 4, 2017, file photo, a man writes a condolence message during the Day of Remembrance for MH370 event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has claimed the “top levels” of the Malaysian government long suspected the vanishing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 almost six years ago was a mass murder-suicide by the pilot. (AP Photo/Daniel Chan, File)

THE DOWNING OF MH370 DID NOT HAVE A  HUMAN CAUSE

 IT WAS MOST LIKELY A WATERSPOUT

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said the “top levels” of the Malaysian government long suspected that the disappearance of a plane almost six years ago was a mass murder-suicide by the pilot.

Abbott was prime minister when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 carrying 239 people vanished on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Australia, working on Malaysia's behalf, coordinated what became the largest search in aviation history, but it failed to find the plane before being ended in 2017.

Speaking in a Sky News documentary to air on Wednesday and Thursday, Abbott said high-ranking Malaysian officials believed veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah deliberately downed the jet.

“My very clear understanding, from the very top levels of the Malaysian government is that from very, very early on, they thought it was murder-suicide by the pilot,” said Abbott, who was Australia’s prime minster from 2013-15.

“I'm not going to say who said what to whom, but let me reiterate, I want to be absolutely crystal clear, it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly murder-suicide by the pilot.”

A Malaysian-led independent investigation report released in 2018 said the plane's course was changed manually but did not name a suspect and raised the possibility of “intervention by a third party.” Investigators, however, said the cause of the disappearance couldn't be determined until the wreckage and the plane's black boxes are found.

The Malaysian Ministry of Transport did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about the remarks from the former Australian leader.

Malaysia has had a change of government since the plane's disappearance, after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ousted the government led by Najib Razak, whose party had ruled Malaysia since its independence in 1957.

The pilot's family has long denied he was suicidal. The 2018 investigative report said there was no evidence of abnormal behavior or stress in the two pilots and none of the passengers had pilot training.

Abbott said he did not believe conspiracy theories centered on the Malaysian government, which owns Malaysia Airlines.

“I’ve read all these stories that the Malaysians allegedly didn’t want the murder-suicide theory pursued because they were embarrassed about one of their pilots doing this. I have no reason to accept that,” he said.

The Australian-led search scoured 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) of the southern Indian Ocean and cost 200 million Australian dollars ($150 million). A private hunt by Texas-based company Ocean Infinity later searched more than 96,000 square kilometers (37,000 square miles) of sea.

Debris that washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean has been confirmed as coming from the missing Boeing 777 and indicated a broad expanse of the ocean where the plane likely crashed after running out of fuel.

Australia, Malaysia and China agreed in 2016 that an official search would only resume if the three countries had credible evidence that identified a specific location for the wreckage. Most of the passengers were Chinese.

Abbott believed a new investigation was warranted.

“Let's assume that it was murder-suicide by the pilot and if there is any part of that ocean that could have been reached on that basis that has not yet been explored, let's get out and explore it,” he said.

THE DOWNING OF MH370 DID NOT HAVE A  HUMAN CAUSE IT WAS MOST LIKELY A WATERSPOUT

Malaysia suspected MH370 downed in murder-suicide: Aussie ex-PM

THIS IS A CONSPIRACY THEORY OF THE MALAYSIAN STATE ENABLED BY THE RIGHT WING EX AUSSIE PM (HEY YA) ABBOT

AFP•February 19, 2020


Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has claimed "very top" level Malaysian officials believed vanished Flight MH370 was deliberately downed by the captain in a mass murder-suicide.

The Malaysia Airlines jet vanished on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 people -- mostly from China -- en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

No sign of the plane was found in a 120,000-square kilometre (46,000-square mile) Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led search, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January 2017.

A US exploration firm launched a private hunt in 2018 but it ended after several months of scouring the seabed without success.

The disappearance of the plane has long been the subject of a host of theories -- ranging from the credible to outlandish -- including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.

In an excerpt from a Sky News documentary airing Wednesday, Abbott claims he was told within a week of it vanishing that Malaysia believed the captain had intentionally downed the jet.

"My very clear understanding from the very top levels of the Malaysian government is that from very, very early on here, they thought it was murder-suicide by the pilot," he said.

"I'm not going to say who said what to whom but let me reiterate, I want to be absolutely crystal clear, it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly murder-suicide by the pilot -- mass murder-suicide by the pilot."

Zaharie's family and friends have long strongly rejected such claims as baseless.

Malaysia's former premier Najib Razak, who was in power during the tragedy, said suspicions over the disappearance weren't made public and there was no proof that the pilot was responsible.

"It would have been deemed unfair and legally irresponsible since the black boxes and cockpit voice recorders had not been found," he told online portal Free Malaysia Today.

"There was no conclusive proof whether the pilot was solely or jointly responsible."

Najib said the scenario involving the pilot was "never ruled out" during the search for the plane.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the former head of Malaysia's civil aviation regulator, criticised Abbott's remarks and said there was not sufficient proof to support the idea.

"It is only a theory," Azharuddin, who led the regulator when Flight MH370 disappeared, told AFP.

"You do this speculation and it will hurt the next of kin. The family of the pilot will also feel very bad because you are making an accusation without any proof."

In 2016, Malaysian officials revealed the pilot had plotted a path over the Indian Ocean on a home flight simulator but stressed this did not prove he deliberately crashed the plane.

A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

But they failed to come up with any firm conclusions, leaving relatives angry and disappointed.

Six passengers were Australian, including four from Queensland state, where Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk this week suggested authorities may pursue an inquest into their deaths.

THE DOWNING OF MH370 DID NOT HAVE A  HUMAN 

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.
SHERLOCK HOLMES AS CONAN DOYLE

CAUSE IT WAS MOST LIKELY A WATERSPOUT




PREVIEW
0:49

Footage shows another huge waterspout that sinks boat in ...
On Demand News
YouTube - Nov 22, 2018

Waterspout capsizes tourist boat in dramatic freak weather ...

https://www.mirror.co.uk › News › World news › Weather

Apr 4, 2016 - The serene scene was met with chaos as a small tornado hit the water and sent the tourist boat toppling over.

Missing: DOWNING ‎PLANES

What is a waterspout? - NOAA's National Ocean Service

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov › facts › waterspout

According to NOAA's National Weather Service, the best way to avoid a waterspout is to move at a 90-degree angle to its apparent movement. Never move ...

Waterspout - SKYbrary Aviation Safety

https://www.skybrary.aero › index.php › Waterspout

Apr 3, 2019 - Waterspouts are similar to tornadoes in structure but occur over the sea rather ... A Waterspout will subject any aircraft encountering it to severe ...

Watch a monstrous waterspout tear across a lake in Alberta ...

https://www.ctvnews.ca › sci-tech › watch-a-monstrous-waterspout-tear-acros...

Jun 29, 2019 - Two people managed to catch a giant waterspout on camera in Alberta on Friday ... Iran announces arrests over downing of Ukrainian plane.

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=MH370

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=WATERSPOUT

Twin waterspouts appear near Palm Beach amid storm warning

The National Weather Service issued a marine warning for local waters, with 46 mph wind gusts forecast.

Thursday 22 August 2024 

THE BAYESIAN Yacht Sinking: Climate Change Created Perfect Storm for Waterspouts

While the exact cause of the deadly sinking of the Bayesian superyacht remains unknown, dangerous waterspouts were spotted in the area. Scientists say they may become far more common.


Photograph: koto_feja/Getty Images

The waterspout blamed for the deadly sinking of a luxury superyacht carrying the British tech billionaire Mike Lynch in Italy has been called a freak “black swan” event. But scientists believe this kind of marine tornado is becoming more common with global warming.

While the cause of the sinking of the Bayesian hasn’t officially been determined, weather conditions and witness reports from Sicily, where the yacht was anchored off the coast, have led experts to suspect a waterspout, a whirling column of air and water mist. The key factor for waterspout formation is warm water—and the past year has seen the ocean surface heat up to record-breaking temperatures, in part due to climate change.

“If this rate of warming is going to be continuing in the future, it’s very possible these phenomena will be common and not rare,” says Michalis Sioutas, a meteorology PhD who studies waterspouts in Greece and is a board member of the Hellenic Meteorological Society. “It’s very possible to talk about waterspouts or even tornadoes and extreme storms becoming common.”

The 180-foot Bayesian sank in a matter of minutes after being caught in a sudden storm with strong winds and intense lightning at around 4 am on Monday. Fifteen people who had been aboard were rescued, and one person was found dead. Six people are missing, including British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who was recently cleared of fraud charges over the sale of his company to Hewlett-Packard. On Wednesday, the bodies of five people were recovered from the sunken ship but have yet to be identified.

Fishermen saw a waterspout near the yacht shortly before it sank, and a nearby schooner was tossed about by what its captain, Karsten Borner, called a “hurricane gust,” which he believes capsized the Bayesian. Experts have said the conditions were ripe for a waterspout.

This extreme weather phenomenon occurs when warm, moist air rises rapidly over water, spinning as winds change direction at different heights. The result is a long, bending funnel of spray between the water and the clouds, tapering off as it rises as much as 10,000 feet into the heavens.

It comes in two flavors. The more vanilla kind is a fair weather waterspout, which forms in relatively calm and even sunny conditions, often under a billowy cumulus cloud. It happens more often in places like the Great Lakes and the Florida Keys, reaches wind speeds of 50 miles per hour, and usually breaks up before it can cause significant damage.

Then there are severe waterspouts, essentially tornadoes over water, which “are another beast” entirely, according to Wade Szilagyi, a retired forecaster at the Meteorological Service of Canada who now directs the International Center for Waterspout Research. These tornadic waterspouts can move from land to water, or vice versa, and twist at 125 miles per hour or more. They’ve been known to throw debris, rip apart buildings, and overturn boats.

A waterspout documented by Sioutas in Methoni, Greece, in 2004 picked up a boat and sent it sailing through the air, striking and killing a 10-year-old boy. Last year, a sudden storm and waterspout with winds of over 40 miles per hour overturned a tourist boat carrying off-duty intelligence agents on Italy’s Lake Maggiore, killing four. Sioutas says waterspouts can even generate “massive water displacements similar to tsunamis,” citing the gigantic waves that struck the coast of the Greek island of Samos during a 2004 cyclone, tossing boulders like toys.

Tornadic waterspouts spring up only in stormy weather with strong winds, lightning, and sometimes hail, and are the product of two main ingredients: wind shear and rising, unstable air. The process begins when masses of cold and warm air collide. This brings together winds from different directions that start to spin around each other, creating vortices. If a thunderstorm also converges in the area, it can provide the instability, sucking warm air up into itself at dizzying speeds. Over water, it starts carrying moisture up as well. Szilagyi compares the waterspout’s development to a twirling figure skater.

“You can think of the skater, if she just spins around normally, that’s like the little vortex that’s already started,” he says. “But if she brings her arms in, then that’s like the column of that unstable warm air, pulling, stretching that vortex upward. She starts to spin faster.”

Waterspouts have been known and feared since ancient times. In the 1550s in Malta, a waterspout plowed through the harbor of Valletta, reportedly destroying an armada of warships and killing hundreds of people. It’s even thought that old stories of fish or frogs raining down on land may be the product of waterspouts sweeping the creatures up into the clouds.

Now global warming may be supercharging the phenomenon. The International Panel on Climate Change has not found a definite link—there hasn’t been much research into how climate change may be affecting waterspouts—but experts say that the conditions for waterspouts to form are happening more often. A 2022 study of 234 waterspouts in the Spanish Mediterranean over the past three decades found that they were more likely to break out when the sea surface was warmer, especially above 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit). And water temperatures are now at unprecedented levels.

Last year was the warmest on record for the ocean. The heat content of the upper 6,500 feet of the seas was the highest ever seen. The seas broke temperature records every single day between May 2023 and May 2024. Marine heat waves struck areas from Antarctica to the Mediterranean.

“Warmer oceans have more energy and more humidity to transfer to the atmosphere, the most important fuels for storms,” says Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society. “The contrast of warm sea and colder air that flows over energizes vertical winds that could result in downbursts or waterspouts.” (A downburst is a powerful cascade of wind and rain from a thundercloud.)

That perfect storm of waterspout conditions hit Italy around the time the Bayesian sank. In recent days, a mass of high-level cold air has swept down from the Alps and over the country’s western coast, meeting the exceptionally warm air just above the sea surface. Four days before the Bayesian went down, sea surface temperatures were the hottest ever recorded across the Mediterranean Sea, with a daily median of 28.71 degrees Celsius. The ocean near where the Bayesian was anchored has reached almost 30 degrees Celsius this week, four degrees higher than the 20-year summer average, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Cold and warm air clashed. Winds started spinning, and overheated water provided the ingredient of instability needed for a waterspout outbreak. As a result, a total of 28 waterspouts were documented off the western coast of Italy from August 17 to August 20, according to the International Center for Waterspout Research.

The total number of waterspouts reported has been increasing in recent years, although a major factor has been that more people are able to capture them with phone cameras and post them on social media, Szilagyi says. But he says that warming waters and a longer waterspout season due to climate change are also contributing. In particular, he believes the number of severe waterspouts are on the rise.

“With the increased water temperatures, that’s probably resulting in more frequent tornadic waterspouts,” Szilagyi says. “There’s no scientific evidence yet that they’re getting even stronger. It’s just that they’re becoming more frequent.”

Warming sea waters are also expected to boost other extreme weather events like Mediterranean hurricanes, or “medicanes,” one of which contributed to the flash flood that killed thousands of people in Libya last year.

In this brave new world, countries need to improve early-warning systems and invest more in research to forecast and observe trends in waterspouts, scientists say. “We have to prepared for more dangerous waterspouts possibly in the future,” Sioutas says. “Significantly warmer waters contribute very significantly to the creation of waterspouts, especially the violent ones.”

Updated 8-22-2024 1:15 pm BST: A previous version of the story stated that the ship’s mast had snapped; this detail has been removed as damage to the mast has not been confirmed.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT 

'What a morning!' Huge waterspout churns offshore as lightning flashes

Wyatt Loy
Tue, August 16, 2022

At 6 a.m. CDT Tuesday, Boo Freeman filmed a massive waterspout off the coast of Destin, Florida, about 50 miles east of Pensacola, before most people had their first cup of coffee. "What a morning! Wow!" Freeman posted on Instagram.

Multiple videos and photos posted to social media showed the storm, Northwest Florida Daily News reported. Freeman told AccuWeather that the photogenic waterspout dissipated offshore. "I've seen many waterspouts; just last week we had another one pass by."

AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell pointed out that this was not a typical waterspout. "It looks like this was a legitimate tornado over water formed by a supercell thunderstorm, not a weak waterspout spun up from a rain shower."


FL Waterspout Radar

A radar loop from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2022, shows a line of thunderstorms offshore from Destin, Florida, indicated by the red dot.

Radar showed a strong thunderstorm formed just offshore and moved southeast. The National Weather Service issued a special marine warning for offshore waters shortly after the waterspout was sighted.

This is the fifth waterspout reported by the National Weather Service off the Florida Panhandle this summer. Data on how often waterspouts occur isn't well-updated, and most of them go unreported entirely, Ferrell said.


Summer 2022 Waterspouts

A total of five waterspouts have been reported by the National Weather Service office so far this summer.

Many of the waterspouts reported in northwest Florida this season have been off the coast near Tallahassee, and the one in Destin is the farthest west of the bunch so far.

  

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT 

 British Columbia

Powerful winds to wallop B.C.'s South Coast in aftermath of Vancouver tornado

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Meteorologists issued wind warnings for Lower Mainland,

 one day after rare waterspout caused damage at UBC

David P. Ball, Jessica Cheung · CBC News · Posted: Nov 07, 2021 5:05 PM PT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Crews clean up Sunday morning after a tree fell on two vehicles near East 6th Avenue and Victoria Drive in Vancouver. (Amy O'Brian/CBC)

Meteorologists issued heavy wind warnings for the Lower Mainland and other parts of B.C.'s coast on Sunday, one day after a rare waterspout was spotted over the ocean near Vancouver International Airport, bringing fierce winds to the UBC campus. 

The winds toppled trees, blocked roads and disrupted transit on Saturday evening, sparking cleanup efforts and a brief tornado alert from Environment and Climate Change Canada. 

The alert lasted only 24 minutes before the funnel cloud vanished, but the incident came amid a very windy weekend in the region, with worse conditions on the way.

• Rare tornado watch briefly issued for Metro Vancouver, Howe Sound

Winds are forecast to reach at least 80 km/h starting Monday in Metro Vancouver, and are expected to reach 110 km/h on other parts of the B.C. coast, warned a special weather statement issued Sunday,

'It's scary'

Laura De Pascale was heading home from the UBC Fencing Club with a friend on Saturday when they saw lightning.

"Then it started pouring hail," she recalled. "There was just a bunch of swirling branches and leaves.

"And suddenly, I don't think I fully realized at the time, I didn't even notice the tree that fell behind my car."

She said the strong winds caused a trolley line to break and fall right outside her car door.

"Once you have power lines starting to come down on your car, it's scary," she said.

De Pascale and her friends were able to head home without injury but it's not an event she will soon forget. 

"I still feel a bit of disbelief and it's hard not to think about what could have gone wrong."

No injuries have been reported from Saturday's weather event. Several people recorded videos of the waterspout, a tornado that forms above water, and posted them to social media. 

Bus routes affected by downed trolley lines

TransLink said trolley repair likely won't begin until Monday morning, as arborists aren't expected to finish the clean-up of fallen trees and debris until late Sunday evening. 

That means regular bus service may not commence until Tuesday. 

Routes 004 and 014 will continue to use West 16th Avenue to reach the campus, while the 99 bus will use Chancellor Boulevard, Tina Lovgreen, spokesperson for TransLink, said in an emailed statement. 

Winds picked up across Metro Vancouver over the weekend, with other parts of the region seeing downed trees and branches unrelated to the tornado.

Meteorologists continue to analyze the phenomenon that descended over UBC on Saturday around 5 p.m., but it's not the first time B.C.'s coast has seen a funnel cloud.

"Waterspouts can occur over the Strait of Georgia or other coastal waters throughout the year — it's not actually all that uncommon. However, this one was quite a large one," Bobby Sekhon, a federal meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, told CBC News.

"Seeing it close to land is a little bit more rare, especially moving through land … certainly close to populated centres."

Sekhon said it was caused by a "broad trough" of low pressure, with cold air atop warm air, creating an "unstable environment" combined with "spin" in the atmosphere on Saturday. 

"Those ingredients kind of came together and formed this waterspout," he said.

And although the phenomenon is not unprecedented in this region, this one was rare for its size — and how close it got to a major city.

He said winds in funnel clouds can hit 80 to 100 km/h or more, but this one did not register on local weather stations.

Sekhon said the chances of another waterspout or tornado are very slight.

"Any time you see a funnel or even worse, a tornado, over water or over land it can be life-threatening — there can be strong wind speeds," Sekhon said. "You want to stay away from anything that might be flying around."

With files from Nadia Jannif

'Ultra-rare' November tornado hits

 Vancouver, B.C., damage reported

Nathan Howes
Digital Reporter

Sunday, November 7th 2021, 9:52 pm - Witnesses in Vancouver, B.C., captured video and photos of a tornado over the Strait of Georgia Saturday that reportedly came ashore and caused minor tree damage at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and immediate vicinity. No injuries have been reported.

B.C. is not a hot spot for tornadoes at any time of the year, so for one to occur there in the heart of fall is certainly a rare occurrence.

Witnesses in Vancouver, B.C., captured video and photos of a tornado over the Strait of Georgia Saturday that reportedly came ashore and caused minor tree damage at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and immediate vicinity. No injuries have been reported.

SEE ALSO: Nearly 600 lives claimed by B.C.'s historic, record-breaking heat wave

At the time on Saturday evening, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) stated a waterspout was spotted west of Vancouver International Airport, and was moving north toward western Vancouver and the mouth of Howe Sound including Bowen Island, prompting tornado watches for Howe Sound and the North Shore.

The watches were soon dropped, and power outages and damage were reported at and surrounding the UBC campus, though it's not clear if the electricity cuts were related. The tornado is under investigation.

The Western University-based Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) sent out a tweet early Sunday morning calling it a "ultra-rare" November supercell tornado.

According to NTP, the City of Vancouver has only seen three tornadoes in recorded history (F1 in 1956, F0 in 1962, F0 in 1976), with twisters also occurring in nearby communities New Westminster (F1 in 1954), Steveston (F1 in 1964), Port Moody (F0 in 1988) and Pitt Meadows (F0 in 1991).

It didn't take long for the visuals to make it onto social media, and below is a selection of what has been circulating.

GO HERE The Weather Network - 'Ultra-rare' November tornado hits Vancouver, B.C., damage reported

Cleanup underway after possible Vancouver tornado; more strong winds forecast

By Simon Little Global News
Posted November 7, 2021 

Video offers an up-close look at strong winds associated with a large waterspout that spotted on the edge of Metro Vancouver on Saturday. The unusual meteorological phenomenon prompted Environment Canada to briefly issue a tornado watch.

Cleanup efforts are underway after rare funnel cloud occurred near the University of British Columbia, and meteorologists are warning that another powerful storm is on the way.

A massive waterspout was spotted near Vancouver International Airport around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, and moved north in the Strait of Georgia to the edge of UBC before dissipating. The incident prompted Environment Canada to issue a rare tornado watch for the region.

On Sunday, Environment Canada said further investigation was required to determine whether a tornado occurred at the time of landfall, and to assess its strength.

“I can confirm it was basically we had a cold, unstable flow and in that was embedded some fairly convective cells and this one formed into a supercell, which spawned a tornadic water spout — and that means it’s basically a tornado that formed over the water,” Environment Canada Meteorologist Mike Gismondi said.

1:00Large waterspout swirls in Vancouver

“We’re not sure at this point whether or not at the time it moved on land, whether it was a tornado — we’re sending a couple of people out to take some photos and try and do an assessment of the damage to to confirm whether or not there was a tornado when it moved on to the land.”

Gismondi described the incident as “extremely rare,” noting that smaller waterspouts are common over the Strait of Georgia, but nothing this strong or long-lasting.

READ MORE: Large funnel cloud near Vancouver prompts brief tornado watch for Howe Sound, North Shore

Strong winds from the system uprooted trees and sent branches flying in the UBC area Saturday evening, even damaging some vehicles.

Dozens of residents of the University Endowment Lands woke up Sunday morning to discover they were still without power.

TransLink said University Boulevard, one of the key routes to UBC, was closed to all traffic and that the number 004, 014 and 099 buses were all being diverted through West 16th Avenue and Chancellor Boulevard.

“Our crews are working hard to restore service as they wait for the City of Vancouver to clear the large number of fallen trees,” TransLink said in a media release.

“We have been advised, this could take several days, until regular access is opened to traffic on this route.”

0:4577% of Canadians think something needs to done on climate change: Ipsos poll77% of Canadians think something needs to done on climate change: Ipsos poll – Aug 26, 2021

Gismondi said it could be several days to a week before Environment Canada will be able to say more about the incident with certainty, and that data will be assessed by tornado experts in the prairies.

However, he said if the event is confirmed to be a tornado, it would likely be of “F0” strength, the weakest category.

He added that while it is difficult to attribute any individual extreme weather event to climate change, the recent string of incidents was noteworthy.

“This year, we’ve seen the heat dome and now this. And then we also had the deepest low (pressure system) off the Northwest Pacific ever recorded,” he said.

“You know, all in the same year certainly seems to be trending towards a pattern.”
More strong winds in forecast

While another waterspout appears unlikely, Environment Canada issued special weather statements for most of the South and Central Coast warning of strong winds on Monday.

The alerts stretch from Metro Vancouver to Haida Gwaii, with the exception of central Vancouver Island. Environment Canada is warning of strong southeast winds of up to 110 km/h, except for the inner South Coast waters, where they are forecast to be up to 80 km/h.

READ MORE: Record-breaking ‘bomb cyclone’ weakens as it hits B.C.: Here’s what you need to know

“A rapidly deepening weather system will generate strong southeast winds over the west coast of Vancouver Island, Central Coast and Haida Gwaii beginning Monday evening,” Environment Canada said.

“The southeast winds will quickly progress into the inner south coast waters. The weather system will remain very intense Tuesday and these blustery conditions are expected to continue.”

Environment Canada said the exact track and strength of the storm systems remains uncertain, and urged people to monitor local media for updates.


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