While it is tornado season in Canada, weather experts say the sudden rash of twisters touching down in the West is highly unusual.

A funnel cloud was spotted Monday over Richmond, B.C., while another tornado east of Calgary destroyed a barn and downed a power line that electrocuted a horse in a barbed-wire pen on the property.

On the weekend, residents in Manitoba were terrorized by a series of twisters that ripped through the province in less than 24 hours.

"The fact that you've got almost a year's worth of tornadoes in less than 24 hours is unusual in that extent," Environment Canada's David Phillips told CTV.ca Tuesday.

The province typically experiences about nine tornadoes a year.

Conditions need to be exact for a storm to become tornadic, much "like baking a soufflé," Phillips explained.

"A lot of things have to come together in the right amounts with the right timing," Phillips said.

Canada is the second most tornado-prone country in the world, behind the U.S., and typically experiences 80 tornadoes a year during the May to September tornado season. According to Environment Canada, 60 per cent of the reported twisters occur in the southern Prairies.

Phillips said tornadoes have been reported in every Canadian province and territory, even as far north as the Arctic Circle.

Windsor, Ont., receives more tornadoes than any other Canadian city because it is more prone to thunderstorms caused by heat and humidity.

Dr. Joseph Schaefer, Director of the NOAA Storm Prediction Centre in Okalahoma, said abnormalities in the tornado season have also occured south of the border.

"Where we're at is a very strange year. What's happened is the cool season was well above normal. In March, we really had an extensive number of tornadoes. We had almost three times as many as normal," Schaefer said.

Schaefer explained the Rocky Mountains are to blame for Canada's twisters.

"The way North America is set up you have the Rocky Mountains sitting there as a dividing point. So, the air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic comes up the east side of the mountains and can't flow over to the west side," Schaefer explained.

"The way the Rockies are set up causes the jet stream to bow around the Rockies. It plunges south on the west side and comes north on the east side."

Schaefer explained Canadian weather experts noticed there is also a correlation between Prairie crops and the amount of tornadoes in the area.

"When the wheat is growing in Alberta and Manitoba, the actual vegetation brings moisture into the air and then when you come out and chop the wheat, the tornado season is over," Schaefer said.

"They (weather experts) have noticed a very pronounced relationship between when the harvest is finished out in the western provinces is when the tornado season ends."

While tornadoes may occur more on the Prairies, tornadoes can touch down anywhere at anytime.

"One of the great myths of tornadoes is that they only hit trailer parks and they don't hit cities," Phillips said.

"No way at all, tornadoes don't avoid Bloor and Bay or Portage and Main. In fact, in Winnipeg in about the last 180 years, there have been 11 tornado sightings within the city," Phillips said.

According to Environment Canada's website, "The typical tornado first appears as a rotation in a huge thunder cloud, behind a shroud of heavy rain or hail. The sky usually turns green, yellow or black. The tornado descends as a violently rotating funnel cloud and sounds like the rumble of a freight train or a jet and can be quite deafening."

"You don't get tornadoes with blue skies," Phillips said.

"They sound like a thousand Venetian blinds, a freight train or five jet aircrafts all taking off at the same time. It's a big kind of roar and sometimes the sky turns a little greenish before they actually strike,"

Phillips said if there is a thunderstorm watch or warning is issued, it's implied a tornado could spawn from those conditions.

If a funnel cloud or tornado is spotted, experts recommend:

• Stay indoors, close all windows and take cover to avoid possible debris.
• Do not sit in a car or trailer.
• If caught outside, go to a low-lying area, ravine or cave and cover your face and neck.

The most important safety precaution to take is covering your body, neck and head.

"What kills you or injures you in a tornado is the flying debris. It's not the wind itself, you're not going to be picked up and transported to the next county," Phillips explained.

"The debris becomes a missile moving at the speed of the tornado."