Waterspout: Rare weather phenomenon spotted near Montreal

A weather phenomenon that is rarely seen in southern Quebec called a waterspout was seen touching down near Montreal on Sunday afternoon.

Jean-François Bégin, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, confirms that the unusual weather event occurred on the Lac des Deux Montagnes near Vaudreuil-Dorion west of Montreal between 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.

"There will not be more investigation for now because there's no way for us to estimate the wind," he tells CTV News. "We have pictures and footage...there's enough evidence that we agree that a waterspout was likely."

Rigaud resident Tim Wood was out fishing when he noticed the skies getting dark above him.

"Hail started coming down and then I looked in front of me and I'm like, 'what is that?' and I looked up and I saw the funnel," he recalls.

Rather than fleeing, Wood says his first instinct was to get closer.

"I was excited," he said, adding that he wanted to take a video of the waterspout. "I had to turn off the video because the wind picked up a lot, and it was coming directly at me. The roof of the boat started shaking. I moved out of the way."

A rainbow appears after a waterspout touches down near Montreal. (Tim Wood)

A waterspout is a rotating column of air that appears over a body of water, not unlike a tornado.

"The main difference is that it's relatively more short-lived because it is created by the influence of the body of water," Bégin explains. "If it were to enter the land, it would have died."

He notes a waterspout is considered to be in the same category as a thunderstorm.

"The warmer the surface temperature of the body of water, the greater the likelihood of seeing one," said Bégin. "You have to have colder temperatures and a trigger as well. You need to have rising air, and with the increasing humidity of the water, there's more evaporation."

He says the last time a waterspout was seen in the Greater Montreal area was on the Saint Lawrence River near the Old Port of Montreal and the Jacques-Cartier Bridge about 15 years ago.

Bégin notes a waterspout was also detected this weekend near the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, a place where they are a much more common occurrence as the body of water is much larger.