On June 22, 2007, a tornado struck the town of Elie, Man., and erased a record held by Fargo- Moorhead for 50 years and two days.
Until the Elie tornado, Fargo-Moorhead held the record for the farthest-north occurrence of an F-5 tornado, (the highest rating on the Fujita Scale), a fact I had learned at the 50th anniversary commemoration just two days before the tornado in Manitoba.
This record fell quietly however, because the Elie tornado was first thought to be an F-4. Later that summer the Canadian Weather Service found two instances of F-5 damage and changed the rating.
On average Manitoba has nine tornadoes each year. The last F-4 tornado in Manitoba was in 1994. This was Canada's first F-5 tornado.
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