Environment Canada confirms tornado touchdown

Melanie Groen was fishing on the beach Saturday afternoon and took this photo of a funnel cloud starting to form.

Environment Canada confirmed a tornado touched down near Winnipeg Beach and Highway 8 around 1:00 p.m. Saturday. Soon after, it tracked over the water.

The tornado then spun over land northeast for about 20 to 30 minutes. It could be seen from Gimli and Matlock.

Melanie Groen was fishing on the beach Saturday afternoon and saw a funnel cloud starting to form.

She said once it touched down the funnel cloud grew wider and wider. Shortly after she said the rain started coming down and the wind picked up.

“It was super cool. It was awesome,” said Groen.

She said managed to snap a lot of incredible photographs from the sighting.

“But it was scary. Very scary,” she added.

She said there were people boating and as soon as they saw the tornado, they docked their boat.

Around noon a number of funnel clouds dotted the sky near Winnipeg, the Interlake and Whiteshell areas.

Environment Canada issued a tornado warning for Grand Beach based on what they saw on the radar. Those warnings have now ended.

The storm is no longer a tornado. The storm which produced the Tornado has now moved to the Pine Falls and Powerview area.

“It did look quite impressive,” said Mark Melsness, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

He said so far there have been no reports of damage.

Environment Canada still has funnel cloud advisory for the Interlake, Red River Valley and points east areas. This advisory will likely remain in effect until late afternoon.