At least two tornados touched down near Davidson July 5 causing destruction, awe and some beautiful photo opportunities for those few brave enough to venture near its path.

Rural Municipality of Wood Creek farmer Jack Morrison was toiling outside his home on the warm early summer Sunday afternoon when ominous black clouds rolled across, which were accompanied by the usual heavy rainfall they bring. The low rolling clouds also brought a more unusual sight that forced Morrison into a run for the house.

“I went and got the camera,” said Morrison. “It was about a mile, two miles, away, so I went outside to take pictures. I was just watching it. It came my way a bit, but it veered off and headed east.”

Morrison said he tried to take some pictures of the twister touching down from inside his house, but due to the rain hitting the window and subsequently blocking his shots he ventured out into his yard to capture the storm. From this vantage point, he took numerous pictures of the tornado touching down and then moving across a nearby field while ripping up trees and neighbouring farm fences and buildings that crossed its path.

“When I was done taking pictures, another cloud came in from the back,” he said, noting his girlfriend Shelly warned him to the approaching second tornado from her safer spot in the house. “I turned into it (and then) was kind of paying attention to it.”

At this point Morrison’s camera batteries went dead, so he took a look at the sky and decided the next point of attack. He said the twister was heading in “pretty bad” from the north and decided to “get out of there” and head back inside.

“Then I talked to Ted Murfitt and he said there was three or four back up in the hills,” said Morrison.

Murfitt was on his farm in the RM of McCraney when the storm rolled in, but didn’t know the extent of the danger until his son Cal gave his wife Lucille a call explaining what was coming. Once Lucille relayed the message he got his camera and started taking pictures.

From his yard looking south Murfitt caught the first “big one” as it went down and stayed down on a path moving away from his property. He said this differed from the second tornado that shortly followed it because that one quickly came to the ground and then lifted back up.

Murfitt said the storm also included an inch of rain in around 15 minutes that helped add to the damage the two twisters brought to the area. As evidenced by a few after-storm photos he took, this destruction included a number of trees on the south side of Ray and Stella Kergen’s yard being stripped and snapped in half.

Morrison said the violent storm lasted about 20 minutes in total and appeared to be moving fast out of the area. He said there was no damage to his property and the pictures he took while standing outside his home show the tornado about as close as he’d like one to get.