Two tornadoes touch down near Manitou

Environment Canada confirmed two tornadoes touched down in Southern Manitoba late Wednesday afternoon.

It issued a tornado warning in the area as a complex of thunderstorms moved into the southern Red River Valley along the U.S. border.

The government weather agency confirmed a brief tornado touched down at 3:55 p.m. three kilometres east of Manitou, approximately 150 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

A second tornado hit approximately 7 km northwest of Manitou around 4:25 p.m.

Though both funnels showed a dust cloud at their base, there were no reports of damage and Environment Canada issued a preliminary rating of 0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

Both touched down in fields. A farmer north of town told CTV News the tornado caused minor damage to their canola field.

Environment Canada is also investigating reports of a third tornado approximately 10 kilometres south of Treherne.

It received several calls and social media photos about funnel clouds stretching from Pilot Mound to Altona and one northwest of Winnipeg around 8 p.m. that forecasters called minor.

It called Wednesday a “cold core funnel day” as there was cold air aloft, not the typical warm air mass of a thunderstorm that causes supercell tornadoes.

The Manitou tornadoes were considered landspouts, which form by weak rotation under rapidly-growing clouds or weak thunderstorms and generally do not cause significant damage.

Wednesday’s storm system also dumped heavy rain over Manitoba’s escarpment along with hail as big as quarters.

Radar indicated up to 100 millimetres of rain just north of Manitou as thunderstorms parked for more than an hour over the region under tornado warning.

A slow-moving storm parked over Winnipeg for half an hour at 6 p.m. and caused up to 40 mm of rain from downtown northeast into Transcona.

Severe thunderstorm watches remained in place into the evening across the region but were lifted before 9 p.m. Environment Canada said the tornado potential would diminish towards sunset.

Meteorologists rely on photos or videos to confirm tornadoes and damage. They ask witnesses to report it by over phone: [phone], e-mail: [e-mail] or Tweet: #mbstorm.