Marc-André Bourgeois-Gaudet was in his boat off the shores of Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Que., last Friday when he saw several funnel clouds descending from the sky like tornadoes.
As he got closer, the rain started falling harder than anything he’d ever experienced, he said. “It was like having a waterfall fall on my head.”
The Northern Tornadoes Project, based at Western University, has confirmed that a number of waterspouts — also known as tornadoes over water — occurred in recent days in Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Both Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Inverness, N.S., reported the weather phenomenon on Aug. 23, while another formed over the Lake of Two Mountains near Vaudreuil, Que., west of Montreal, two days later. There have also been a number in Ontario in August, most in the Great Lakes area.
David Sills, executive director of The Northern Tornadoes Project, said a waterspout is simply a tornado that forms over water …