While weather in Victoria is known to be strange, a truly unique natural phenomenon occurred on Vancouver Island on Monday afternoon.
See also: 14 photos of yesterday’s spectacular rainbow over Victoria (PHOTOS)
On July 15th, a Vancouver Island resident, Michelle Walsh, spotted a funnel cloud looming over Mt. Benson near Nanaimo. She then uploaded a similar picture of what she saw in the area to social media.
The aptly named ‘funnel cloud’ is a funnel-shaped cloud made of condensed water droplets and a rotating column of wind.
Most funnel clouds are short-lived and rarely make contact with the ground, though the force of their rotating wind can sometimes cause minor damage.
“If you’re close to it [waterspout/cold core funnel cloud], some smaller scale damage could happen – it would be able to blow away loose things like fences and garbage cans – so be careful while witnessing something like that,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan when a similar funnel cloud appeared over Nanaimo last year.
See also: Funnel cloud looms over Vancouver Island on Sunday (VIDEOS)
You can check out two photos of today’s funnel cloud above Mt. Benson below. You can also find a video of 2018’s event online here.