Jordan Parker got an uncomfortably close look at nature’s fury on Wednesday — and has the video to prove it.
Parker was at home with his parents and two brothers a few kilometres southwest of Alix on Wednesday evening when the winds started to pick up dramatically about 7:30 p.m.
“My parents were outside gardening and I was just watching this storm come in,” said the 21-year-old, who caught some of the action on video.
“I was watching from my deck and then I just saw a whole bunch of dust flying in the air just across the highway from us.”
He yelled to his parents and brother that they better head indoors.
“They just turned and looked and starting running. The next thing you know we just saw this twister touch down on the ground on the grass just across the field from us.”
The whole family headed into the basement to wait out the storm, which was at its peak for about 10 minutes. They could hear windows rattling upstairs.
“There was just a lot of wind.”
When it died they came out to check the damage. Shingles had been ripped from the roof and fascia torn off.
Even more impressively, a five-metre trampoline had been picked up and blown more than 150 metres across the yard into a line of trees. A wooden staircase that was next to it was also tossed across the yard.
Parker, 21, said the family is used to wild weather.
“We live on a hill and so we get some pretty bad windstorms but nothing like that,” he said. “We’ve never had our trampoline blow away like that before.”
There actually appeared to be two twisters in the area at the same time, but one was hidden by the sun glare and he couldn’t get a good shot of it.
Environment Canada meteorologist Bill McMurtry said there were no reports called in of funnel clouds in the area on Wednesday and nothing appeared on radar.
But that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, he added. The cold front that blew in can produce extremely strong winds, downdrafts, and even twisters.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com