Expert doubtful of tornado

Reports that a tornado wreaked havoc in the Christian Valley, southeast of Kelowna, are in doubt.

While it's clear the winds on the afternoon of Sept. 25 were powerful enough to knock over trees and powerlines and destroy property in the area, an organization that studies the storms says there are differences between damage caused by tornadoes and wind storms.

And they're leaning toward saying it's the latter.

"We’ve been monitoring the reports coming out of the area and are not convinced that a tornado occurred there," David Sills, executive director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University told Castanet.

"The damage photos and descriptions that we’ve seen seem more like typical straight-line wind damage."

The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary labelled the storm a tornado based on community reports, after the storm threw the region into a state of chaos.

An Environment Canada meteorologist said they could not confirm whether the storm was a tornado and they don't tend to investigate these storms in a way they previously did.

While Environment Canada could not give specific information about that storm, they did have some figures that underscored the severity of the weather that rolled through the Southern Interior on Wednesday.

Environment Canada meteorologist Matt Loney said the weather station at the Kelowna airport measured winds blowing at 78 km/h at around 2:45 p.m., while a station near Kooteney Pass saw wind speeds of 90 km/h.

The most severe winds measured, however, were in Nelson, which saw speeds of 107 km/h.

While tornadoes are rare in B.C., there have been 14 weak ones reported in the province since 2017, according to Sills.

He noted they are still looking for more evidence about the incident in Christian Valley to determine whether it was a tornado.

People can send their reports to Northern Tornadoes Project by email or on their reporting page.