Terrifying moment vast cloud threatened to engulf whole street

This is the terrifying moment a cloud threatened to develop in to a full blown tornado and engulf a whole row of family houses.

Brave photographer Pat Kavanagh took this shot of an explosive black storm from the roof of his house in Taber in Alberta, Canada, last month.

Expecting the sunny weather to take a turn for the worst, he watched intently as the billows started spinning into a furious funnel.

The father-of-three said: 'It was a nice evening and the sun was shining when I suddenly heard claps of thunder, which was strange.

'My wife went to look out the front door and saw the clouds blowing up from the south.
'I took one look and headed back into the house to get my camera.

'We watched the storm for a few minutes when I noticed that the cloud was starting to spin.
'I got my ladder and climbed up on my roof to get a better view.

'It never got the momentum to create a tornado, but it did look like it was going to happen before out eyes.
'We watched for 45 minutes as it slowly moved back into cloud formation.' 

Tornadoes are very unusual in Taber, so this picture, taken on July 17, was a once-in-a-lifetime sighting for the Human Resource manager.

He added: 'Our area of the country seldom sees Tornadoes so this was a rare sight indeed and with the rainbow underneath it, made it even more special to see.' 



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