Tornado Confirmed in Southern Manitoba, near Emerson on Friday, May 3rd, 2019

Environment Canada has confirmed the first tornado in Manitoba in 2019 and second Canadian tornado as an EF-0 landspout tornado from Friday, May 3rd.

Image provided from Google Earth

The agency states that they received reports with video and picture evidence of a dust cloud at the base of the funnel between Letellier and Emerson.

There was no reported damage from this storm and therefore, was given a base EF-0 rating. Tornadoes of this strength often have winds speeds between 90 and 130 kilometres an hour.

Environment Canada has classified the twister as a landspout tornado.

Landspout tornadoes can form from almost any thunderstorm. A landspout tornado is caused by a thunderstorm with weak rotation near the ground that is stretched by the development/growing of showers or more commonly, thunderstorms. This weak movement of rotation is enough to cause a landspout tornado. Landspout tornadoes are often more weak than a supercell tornado.

Because of the quick nature of landspout tornadoes and the timing of when they often form, they are more difficult to catch on radar compared to supercell tornadoes.

Manitoba averages between 5 and 10 tornadoes each year.

Radar scans at the time of the tornado reports. | Pictures from RadarScope