Storm spawns tornadoes and waterspouts in BC, Washington State and Oregon

Oct 15 2016, 9:02 am

Wet, windy, and weird weather: The wind and rain storm system that hit the South Coast of British Columbia today produced at least one waterspout near Metro Vancouver.

A tweet by the Royal Canadian Marine Search & Rescue this afternoon captured waterspouts, a weaker non-super cell tornado that travels over water, in Howe Sound.

Just south of the border, the same storm system also brought heavy rainfall and high winds to Washington State and Oregon.

It triggered a tornado warning in an area on the coast southwest of Seattle when a waterspout approached inland.

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In Oregon, two tornadoes made rare touchdowns in the Pacific Northwest about 60 kilometres south of the waterspout sighting off the coast of Washington State.

The first tornado touched ground in the coastal town of Mazanita at approximately 8:20 am, destroying two businesses and damaging 128 homes, according to the municipal government. The US National Weather Service classified the tornado as an EF2 tornado, a category of tornado that produces wind speeds of between 178 km/hr and 217 km/hr.

There were no injuries from this twister.

Less than an hour later, a tornado briefly touched down on a beach near Oceanside, located further south along the Oregon coast. However, there was no damage as it only reached the beach before quickly retreating.

Tens of thousands of customers of various powers companies in both states also lost their electricity at some point of the day from the strong winds.

The worst of the three storms, a powerful typhoon remnant-enhanced storm, will make landfall on Saturday evening.

Earlier in the day, forecast models indicated the storm could have a trajectory anywhere from BC’s South Coast to Oregon, but the latest and most accurate forecasts indicate the storm will directly hit central or southern Vancouver Island before tracking over the Lower Mainland, according to Environment Canada.

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DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

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