While the rainfall is impressive, the more impressive thing was one of these storm cells that moved through the area had enough rotation to drop a funnel cloud near Deer Lake. Initially, I was extremely skeptical as these events, while not unheard of, are extremely rare in our Province. Then I was shown a crucial piece of evidence that make this occurrence much more likely in my mind. The observer from the Deer Lake airport put the abbreviation for a funnel cloud in the 5:30 PM NDT METAR.
The text I have highlighted in yellow is the observation of the funnel cloud! And for those interested, METAR stands for, also known as Meteorological Terminal Aviation Routine Weather Report, Meteorological Terminal Air Report or Meteorological Airfield Report is a format for reporting weather information. METARs are standard across the world for weather observations.
After this, the pictures and videos started coming in. The first ones I saw were from Steve Stuckless, who got a very good snap of the funnel cloud from the Deer Lake area.Steve was also able to capture a great video of the funnel, where you can clearly see the rotation.Here are a couple more pictures of the funnel from different anglesSo we had visual and photo/video evidence of the funnel. But what about radar? Can we confirm it there? The answer is yes.
If the funnel reached the ground then it would be considered a tornado if it made contact on land and a water spout if the contact was made on the water. Again, in this case, I currently have no evidence suggesting this circulation reached the ground.