CANYON CITY — A tornado touched down in the Marysville Lane area just east of Canyon City on Sunday, Nov. 5, according to Grant County Emergency Management Coordinator Eric Bush.

Bush said nobody was injured, but damage was sustained by two homes, two sheds and three vehicles. In addition, a juniper was uprooted and other trees were torn apart.

On Tuesday, Nov. 7, Bush said he received a message from federal weather officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration saying they were going to rate the storm as an EF 0 tornado. Bush said an official report from NOAA is still forthcoming.

“We had a severe weather event up in the Marysville area yesterday afternoon,” Bush said on Monday. “Nobody got hurt. It severely damaged two residences. One was a manufactured home and one was a travel trailer. Three vehicles were damaged, with broken windows.”

In a news release, Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley said the tornado was strong enough to move a 28-foot travel trailer 9 feet north and 2 feet east. The other residence suffered major roof damage, exposing part of the living area to the elements, according to McKinley.

Occupants of the manufactured home took refuge in the bathroom, McKinley said. A sheriff’s deputy responded to the scene and found no one was injured.

Staff from NOAA came to investigate the scene on Monday after Bush contacted the agency’s Pendleton office on Sunday afternoon.

Bush said he also visited the scene on Monday morning and found a large uprooted juniper tree, another juniper broken in half and a couple of others with limbs ripped, in addition to the damaged structures and vehicles.

A video shot by Larry Palmer, of Mt. Vernon, around 1 p.m. on Sunday from the Grant County Regional Airport and posted on Facebook shows what may have been a tornado funnel forming out of a dark storm cloud and kicking up debris. He said what he captured on video “was a big surprise.”

“Yes, it was a tornado,” Palmer said. “Dust devils don’t come out of a cloud. … It is very rare, especially with our mountains.”

Bush shared Palmer’s Facebook video with the investigators from NOAA.

“They’re going to take their data and all the things they learned and consult with their team to make a determination,” Bush said. “They said they couldn’t find anything to indicate that it was not a tornado. So really what it boils down to is, if they determine it was a tornado, then what grade of tornado is it, either an EF 0 or an EF 1.”

The EF Scale (short for Enhanced Fujita Scale) uses the level of damage caused by a tornado to estimate the storm’s probable wind speed. A rating of 0 indicates winds of 65-85 mph, while a rating of 1 suggests winds between 86 and 110 mph.

Bush said the last officially recorded tornado in Grant County touched down in Long Creek in 1890, killing three people.

“They’re rare, but they do happen,” Bush said. “I just think it’s a great example of how we’re blessed not to have a lot of frequent acute weather events here in Grant County. It’s just a good reminder that an acute weather event that you may have never seen in Grant County can still occur — not just weather but earthquakes, maybe potential volcanic eruptions. Not here in Grant County, but close enough to affect us.”