Is this the 1st tornado the Lower Mainland has seen in decades?
Environment Canada says a "possible" tornado was spotted at Hayward Lake northwest of Mission this past Sunday.
The agency said it couldn't confirm if it was a tornado for certain, however "there was evidence of rotation on Doppler radar suggesting an F0 tornado."
A person with the handle @missionbcistheplacetobe posted video of the possible tornado to Instagram.
It is far from conclusive, showing swirling mist at the side of Hayward Lake and a tree falling into the water. In the audio, you can hear wind.
Tornados are measured on the Enhanced Fujita or EF-Scale. An EF0 tornado is at the bottom of the scale registering wind speeds between 104 and 137 kilometres per hour. At the top of the scale is an EF5 tornado with wind speeds of more than 300 kilometres per hour.
CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe says tornados are extremely rare in the Pacific Northwest because of the mitigating effect of the Pacific Ocean.
"One of the most common scenarios for the kind of storms that produce twisters is the collision of air masses with very different temperatures. But the ocean keeps our temperatures moderated all year long. On top of that, our mountains often act to cut off any real chance of developing super cells," she said. Wagstaffe says converging wind directions may have triggered the weather event.
"Conditions were ideal on Sunday for an unstable environment: a pocket of cool air sitting on top of our relatively warmer ocean waters with lots of available moisture."
The last reported tornados in the Lower Mainland were near Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows in 1988 and 1991 respectively.
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