UPDATE: Funnel cloud spotted in Okanagan

OKANAGAN – Several people have reported seeing a funnel cloud in the sky above a ridgeline in Okanagan this afternoon.

Photos and videos posted to social media from people in Vernon and Lake Country today, July 10, show a funnel cloud descending toward a ridge top but it doesn’t look like it makes it all the way to the ground.

Environment Canada meteorologist Jennifer Hay has seen the pictures and the videos, and calls it a cold core funnel.

“It’s not a tornado, but it’s slightly related because there was a bit of rotation to it but it’s much weaker,” she says. “It’s due to cold air up in the atmosphere.”

Hay says cold core funnels, which are more common over large lakes and the prairies, usually don’t touch the surface so they rarely cause damage.

“But they look scary so we get sent pictures,” she says.

Hay says the reports Environment Canada has received indicate the funnel was west of the North Okanagan. Some on social media say it was near Terrace Mountain.

She says it’s hard to pinpoint the exact location even with radar because it doesn’t take a lot of atmospheric dynamics to create the funnels.

Funnel cloud on west side of Kelowna? #WestKelowna #lakecountry pic.twitter.com/hREUQeV2Gi

— iamdamone (@iamdamone) July 10, 2016

Funnel cloud in the Okanagan. ?? #funnelcloud #okanagan #okanaganlake #strangeweather

A video posted by Robyn W (@robynwikkerink) on

Jul 10, 2016 at 2:38pm PDT

— This story was updated at 4:07 p.m., Sunday, July 10, 2016 to add information from Environment Canada.

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