Meteorologist calls ominous looking cloud a 'rain shaft'

Photo: Sherry Kossakowski

Castanet reader, Sherry Kossakowski shared an interesting weather photo that she took from the East Kelowna area on Monday.

The photo captures what looks like a funnel cloud forming behind the Knox Mountain.

Meteorologist Doug Lundquist tells Castanet, "it's very cool, but to me, it looks like a rain shaft." 

A rain shaft is described as, "a weather phenomenon, visible from the ground at long distances from the storm system." Like you can see in this photo, there is a dark vertical shaft of heavy rain, hail, or snow, generally localized over a relatively small area.

Lundquist says if it was a tornado, the edges would be crisp and better defined, "the photo shows diffuse edges and at the bottom, it fans out."

We got a bit of a break from the rain on Monday but Lundquist says the unsettled weather is expected to stick around until Thursday at least. 

"A ridge of high pressure is expected to move in for the weekend," hopefully bringing warmer temperatures and sunny skies. He says the wet weather we've been experiencing this year is actually fairly normal but he expects things to shift soon.

"Typically we take a turn out of the cooler wetter weather right around July 7 (give or take)."