Tornado touched down on Sunshine Coast during wind storm

After a violent windstorm took down felled trees and power lines right across Southern B.C. earlier this week, it might come as no surprise that a tornado has been confirmed to have touched down near Sechelt.

The Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University confirmed on Wednesday that a “weak late-season” EF-0 tornado touched down on Monday, Nov. 4.

“The tornado felled trees along a short path, falling on power lines and briefly blocking roads,” the NTP explained.

1130 NewsRadio meteorologist Michael Kuss says the conditions during the wind storm were “exceptional,” as wind gusts were clocked at 115 kilometres an hour.

“It looks like this tornado, based on the track, was on the ground for a little less than a kilometres, and then picked up, taking down trees, knocking out power,” Kuss explained.

The storm took out power for around 290,000 BC Hydro customers on Monday, with almost 2,500 on the Sunshine Coast still without power on Wednesday.

Kuss says that while tornadoes are especially rare in B.C. in November, they’re not unheard of.

“The last recorded tornado in B.C. was on November 6, 2021, up at the UBC campus. It was also an EF-0,” he explained.

According to the Enhanced Fujita Scale, an EF-0 tornado has winds of 65 to 85 miles per hour — 104.5 km/h to 137 km/h.

Kuss adds that there’s still a lot to understand about Monday’s tornado.

“At this stage, we’re not sure if this was a water spout that came on land. Of course, it was incredibly active, the weather around the region on Monday, and that’s when this took place.”