SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Kim MacNearney had a hunch something interesting was taking place when she looked up at the sky Sunday morning.

A funnel cloud was spotted by many residents over Yellowknife on Sunday morning. - photo courtesy of Jonathan Churcher

On Sunday at about 11 a.m., she spotted a funnel cloud over Yellowknife.

"As I was turning the corner out of Nova Court I saw this little finger pointing out of the sky," said MacNearney, who considers herself and her husband Craig to be storm chasers.

Kim's reaction was anything but typical when seeing the unusual weather phenomenon in Yellowknife.

"I started hysterically laughing, because as a storm chaser that's just what you wait for," she said, adding she believed the cloud was over Back Bay at the time.

Kim's husband spotted the previous funnel cloud reported near Yellowknife this summer on July 25.

"He went out for coffee and came back two hours later," she said.

Kim noticed the latest funnel cloud after leaving her house to get some coffee. "I thought, 'those clouds look really cool,' I'm going to get my camera."

She watched the funnel as it began to take shape and started taking photos.

"I was frantically pulling in and out of parking lots and weaving by the marathon runners," said Kim, referring to the Yellowknife Overlander Marathon.

She said she tried to point out the funnel cloud to runners.

"I was yelling, 'there's funnel cloud!" Kim said, but the runners only waved back.

According to Kim, the funnel cloud only lasted for six minutes.

Fellow Yellowknife resident Carrie Young also spotted the funnel cloud on Sunday morning by Frame Lake near her home in Northland Trailer Park.

"It came down from the cloud and it got longer and longer and more defined as it came down," she said.

Young said she could see movement from the funnel cloud.

"It was pretty freaky," she said. "I was thinking 'how long am I going to take pictures of this before it gets dangerous.'"

It was the first funnel cloud Young had seen before, but she had heard about the previous sighting last month.

"It's kind of funny that there's been multiple sightings within the last weeks," said Young. "Weird weather we've been having."

According to Yvonne Bilan-Wallace, a meteorologist with Environment Canada based in Edmonton, the only other funnel cloud reported in the Northwest Territories this year was on July 25.

"This kind of situation typically is not dangerous," said Bilan-Wallace.

"In the rare event that a funnel did reach the ground, you wind have winds in the F0 to F1 category (maximum 180 km/h)."

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