Storm-chasers catch centre of near-tornado around Quebec City

An amateur storm-chaser shot stunning video Monday of the vortex of a stormnearPortneuf, Que., that nearly turned into a tornado.

"We had known for several days that there were favourable conditions for violent storms and possibly tornadoes," said MarcRmillard.

Rmillardworks in TV advertising production, but shares his storm-chasing hobby with a group called Quebec Vortex.

• Man who mowed lawn with tornado behind him says he 'was keeping an eye on it'

He and two friends left Montreal around 10 a.m. on Monday and followed a few storms before turning toward Portneuf, 50 kilometres west of Quebec City.

"We could see there were storms coming down from the mountains and hitting an environment that was reallyfairly extreme for the areavery favourable toward intense rotation," he said.

His group alerted Environment Canada that they were possibly watching a tornado being formed.

Dangerous clouds

An Environment Canada meteorologist, Marie-Eve Gigure, said the rotating cloud the storm-chasers caught on tape is almost 10 kilometres highand shows a clear upward motion.

"When you have a violent updraft and violent downdraft as well that makes the storm spin really fast," said Gigure, who works onwarning preparedness.

• Storm chasing on Sunday night

But she added that what the storm-chasers caught on tape did not qualify as atornado because it did not touch the ground. And, while the storm had the ingredients to form a tornado, only 10 per cent of severe storms like the one in Portneuf actually become one.

Watch the video here:

Gigure said people should nonetheless take such storms seriously. "If you ever see this kind of cloud near you, take shelter," she said.

Environment Canada confirms about six tornadoes in Quebec every year.