WHITBY -- Whitby and Oshawa were two of the communities in the GTA where funnel-shaped clouds were spotted Monday afternoon as a cold front passed through.
"We were looking at the sky that was darkening quickly," Willem Woudwyk wrote in an email to newsdurhamregion.com.
Mr. Woudwyk works at OWASCO RV Sales on Champlain Avenue, in the Thickson Road and 401 area.
"All of a sudden the funnel cloud appeared and moved quickly from west to east."
"It was visible for about 3-4 minutes," he said. "I only saw the one."
"There were actually a number of funnel cloud reports," Peter Kimbell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, told newsdurhamregion.com.
The smooth base is indicative of a funnel cloud, he said, however, the atmospheric conditions Monday afternoon would not have given it any punch had it reached the ground.
"If it had touched the ground it would have been very weak."
"It probably was associated with 'outflow' from a thunderstorm as opposed to 'inflow' that would have been producing a tornadic thunderstorm or supercell thunderstorm," Mr. Kimbell said.
"These types of funnel clouds form out of large cumulus clouds or weak thunderstorms and normally do not have enough energy to reach the ground," Environment Canada said in a statement Monday as the weather system approached.
None of the funnel-shaped clouds in the GTA were reported to have reached the ground.
Funnel clouds were also spotted along Hwy. 401 at Dixon Road., at Hwy. 401 and Islington Avenue, and Hwy. 427 and Dundas Street West in Toronto.
Send funnel cloud photos to us by e-mailing newsroom@durhamregion.com for use on newsdurhamregion.com.
-- with files from Torstar news services
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