It appears a “weak, late-season” tornado contributed to storm damage on the Sunshine Coast Monday.
Following up on a video posted to Facebook and looking at radar data, Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Ken Dosanjh, said they're "looking at a potential” of an EF 0 on the enhanced Fujita scale. (On the six-point scale, zero is the weakest and five is the strongest.) The Northern Tornadoes Project also confirmed the event via a post on X (Twitter).
“We did see fallen trees along a path, fallen power lines and some road blockages as well,” Dosanjh said. The estimated track length was 0.7 kilometres and preliminary tornado motion was from the west.
Based off radar imagery and indications (there’s a radar nearby at Halfmoon Peak), estimated maximum wind speeds were around 115 kilometres an hour.
While Dosanjh couldn’t comment if there have been any tornadoes on the Sunshine Coast before, there have been two other November tornadoes on record in B.C. since the 1980s, both around the southwestern parts of the province. Notably, three years ago in early November 2021, there was one recorded in Vancouver. “I can't comment on if there's been any other recorded tornadoes at this point.”
Tornadoes are “generally not super common” for the South Coast or even B.C., he said. “We definitely get more waterspout action, so when we do see tornadoes over land, they are fairly uncommon.”
Darren Hemstreet recorded the tornado video that was posted to Facebook and which has since been shared across news organizations and social media. He had gone to his office on Beau Road in Halfmoon Bay, and he and his co-worker Josh had just gotten out of the truck when they heard what sounded, “almost like a train” coming toward them.
“We could literally hear the trees coming down as it was coming toward us,” he said. As he heard it coming, Hemstreet pulled out his phone. “It was apparent something that was about to happen. And it did.”
“It was pretty cool, but really weird, because it was taking the tops off all the trees, and all the tops on the trees were going amongst the other trees,” described Hemstreet. “It just slammed the trees down like an excavator was pushing them over.
“It was quite intense. Just really nailed into that, like, two, three block radius.”
After, Hemstreet went and knocked on the doors where the trees had landed on houses. “People came out and it was just a look of [bewilderment].”
No injuries were reported from the day’s storm.
At a similar time, nearby, Lynn Devost Smith recorded trees falling onto Highway 101, see that video below.
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Video produced by Alanna Kelly
