An unusual weather event, which hit the Sunshine Coast during a massive wind storm Nov. 4, has been confirmed as a tornado.
Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Chris Doyle told Coast Reporter, video of the dramatic incident was shared with the Northern Tornadoes Project, a research arm of Western University and the University of Western Ontario, both based in London, Ontario.
“Basically, what they do there is catalogue and, when they can, investigate tornado occurrences and then sort of validate all the parameters surrounding the tornado,” said Doyle. “So, they are saying yes, it was a tornado.”
Doyle explained that while the tornado measured EF-zero on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the weakest level on the scale which goes from zero to five, it was still a serious weather event. He added, it was very lucky no one was injured during the wind storm and tornado.
“Of course, it did significant damage to trees and overhead hydro lines, so it was a meaningful event for the community, Thankfully, nobody was injured, so that's a positive. You know, even with an EF-zero, you can get winds gusting to 120 kilometers per hour. So that's strong,” said Doyle.
Doyle added, there are two kinds of tornados, including one that’s connected to a thunderstorm overhead, described as a “classic tornado.” He says the Coast did not get a thunderstorm during the wind storm, but instead there was a cloud that had built up, but wasn’t deep enough to generate lightning.
“When these deep clouds build, they’re like figure skaters when they bring in their arms and they speed up the rotation,” says Doyle. “So, this front that was coming through Sechelt at the time, the wind was blowing right into the front. And as that wind converged into the front, the rotation locally increased.”
When that happens, said Doyle, it creates a type of tornado called a “gustnado,” which are typically affiliated with a strong front.
“And I think that's the kind of tornado that hit Sechelt on the morning of [November] fourth, so a gustnado. That’s still a tornado with just a slightly different mechanism of generation than the kind of tornadoes you might see over Kansas.”
He said, once the Northern Tornadoes Project saw a video of the event, it was not difficult for them to deem it an official tornado.
“Northern Tornadoes Project did receive a video, the same one I actually saw on Twitter, showing some rotation in the clouds around the trees that were being knocked over at the time,” said Doyle. “So, it's relatively easy to confirm that a tornado was going on just from the video evidence alone and moreover, the sort of scale of damage and the way the damage was localized also suggests that it was a tornado, rather than a much larger-scale wind event that created the damage. That allowed us to say with high confidence that it was a weak tornado.”
When asked, Doyle said he saw no reason for Coasters to start digging storm cellars, common in areas like Kansas, famous for their devastating “twisters.” He added, the tornado was a very rare occurrence for the Sunshine Coast with no more predicted for the foreseeable future.
On request, Doyle was able to give a weather report to Coast Reporter.
“So basically, for the remainder of today, we have an upper trough of very cold air aloft, crossing the coast and it's going to generate some showers,” said Doyle. “Showers should taper off tomorrow and it's going to feel a bit cool tomorrow, too. The winds will calm down. It's still pretty gusty today, much less gusty tomorrow, and then Friday is actually going to be the nicest day of the week. So, get out there and enjoy it, because for later on Saturday and into Sunday morning, we have another fairly sharp cold front coming through. Don't expect a tornado from this one. There will be gusty winds and a shot of heavy showers overnight Saturday into early Sunday morning.”
Words missing in article? Your adblocker might be preventing hyperlinked text from appearing.
