An central Alberta mother who shares a keen interest in storms and weather said she and her son were thrilled to see what appeared to be a landspout tornado form southwest of Edmonton on Thursday.
“At the end of it, my little one and I, we looked at each other and I said, ‘We’re real stormchasers now buddy.'”
Miciak said they saw the rotating cloud formation at Township Road 481 and Rural Route 271 in the Wizard Lake, Alta. area at 2:58 p.m.
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She said she was driving with her son while her twins were sleeping in the back when the startling sight came into view.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to see a funnel cloud happen and record it,” she said. “So I looked into my rear-view mirror, and I thought at first it was a fire coming, just cause it looked so dark and I’ve never seen this and it’s pretty unlikely to see one.”
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Miciak said the whole event was over after about a minute. After, she said her son asked to go to his grandmother’s house because she has a basement and they could be safe.
Miciak told Global News she believes the cloud formation touched down on land. She said she was facing north when she saw it and the lake was behind her to the south.
After watching the video, Global Edmonton meteorologist Jesse Beyer said it possibly depicts a landspout tornado.
“Basically it’s rotating air that gets ingested into the updraft of a developing cumulous cloud,” he said. “As it stretches, the speed increased and created a landspout tornado.”
Watch below: Some videos from Global News’ coverage of funnel clouds and tornadoes in Alberta.
Global News has reached out to Environment Canada for comment on the possible landspout tornado sighting.
Wizard Lake is about 65 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.