Storm tracker group confirms rare tornado touchdown on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast

By Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press on November 7, 2024.

Strong winds push across Vancouver Island during a storm, Jan. 5, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

A resident of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast says a rare tornado that she saw touch down on Monday was like a scene out of a movie with trees coming down “like dominoes” in the high winds.

Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project, which tracks storm events across Canada, has confirmed that what Lynn Smith captured on video during the windstorms that hit much of the B.C. coast was a tornado, with wind speeds of 115 km/h.

Smith says she turned on the camera hoping to send a tongue-in-cheek clip to a relative about the “beautiful day” outside Sechelt, where she regularly travels from her home in Halfmoon Bay.

Smith says stormy weather in the region isn’t out of the ordinary but when she saw a “big, healthy” tree come down, she knew something wasn’t right.

The footage captured by Smith from her car shows winds whipping up forest debris as a tree falls across the road and she gasps in disbelief.

Smith says she was worried someone was injured and called 911 when she turned around, flashing her lights at oncoming traffic to warn them of the downed trees.

Northern Tornadoes Project executive director David Sills says the team is still awaiting satellite imagery data on the tornado event.

The Sechelt tornado is only the second recorded by the project in B.C. this year, after one that occurred over Mabel Lake in the B.C. Interior in August.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.