Tornado spotted near southwest tip of Lake Winnipeg

At least one tornadowas spotted sweeping up debris around the southwest tip of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba on Saturday afternoon.

Catherine Dyck, who lives in Matlock, a small town about 70 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, said she witnessed afunnel cloud touch down during the noon hour.

Dyck said she and her partner were on their way to the garbage dump when they saw somethingodd along the horizon in the distance. Theirfirst instinct, Dyck said, was tostick around and watch the spectacle from afar.

"It was pretty amazing to see it. Pretty amazing to be able to have the techniques to be able to take photographs and video of it immediately and notify somebody."

She also photographedit spinning across the surface of Lake Winnipeg.

A family filmed a tornado near Winnipeg Beach, and just to the south of Matlock, nearPetersfield, Man., Jason Bedardrecorded footage of a funnel cloud touching down, too.

RAW: Funnel cloud spotted south of Matlock in Manitoba

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Jason Bedard recorded this funnel cloud touching down north of Petersfield (south of Matlock, Man.) Saturday afternoon.

A funnel cloud becomes a tornado when it touches ground. Environment Canada confirmed it received several reports of tornadoesnear Interlake communities aroundLake Winnipeg's south basin Saturday afternoon.

The first report of funnel clouds came in just before 12:30 p.m. CT from someone in Petersfield.Twenty minutes later, afunnel cloud was reported to have touched down near Winnipeg Beach, Environment Canada said.A short time later, the agency said it received reports of a tornado near Matlock.

The sightings in the Interlake regionall likely correspond to the same funnel cloud, the agency said, addingit hasn't received any reports of damages related to it.

Tornado warnings thatwere in effect earlier in the day for St.Clements(Grand Beach andBrokenhead),Winnipeg Beach, St. Andrews,Selkirk,Gimli, Stonewall, Woodlands,Eriksdaleand the surrounding areas were later removed.

Funnel cloudadvisories issued for areas in the Interlake region and the southeast parts of the province were called off at about 6 p.m., according to Environment Canada'swebsite.

Special weather advisories werealso ineffect across south and southeastern Manitoba onSaturday afternoon including Winnipeg, Hecla, Grand Beach, Morden, Winkler, Sprague, Steinbach, Lac Du Bonnet, the Whiteshell and the surrounding areas. Those, too, had been called off as of 6 p.m.

Environment Canada said people should take cover immediately if they see funnel clouds forming or touching down.