It was an awesome sight - but a very scary one.

As violent weather settled in again on the G.T.A., residents in Markham were stunned to see what appeared to be a funnel cloud in the skies over their neighbourhood.

Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch for a wide area, including Toronto, York, Durham, Peel, Halton, and on into cottage country.

And true to the prediction, a storm swept into the city around 2pm Thursday, with torrential downpours in some areas.  

As much as 50 millimetres of precipitation fell in less than an hour in some parts of the city, bringing down power lines all over the G.T.A.  

Combined with thunder, lightning and damaging winds, it was the kind of show only Mother Nature can put on - and one you'd only want to see from under cover.  

It reminded some of the infamous downpour last August 19th that flooded basements and left motorists stranded.  

Things weren't so bad this time around, but there were still some damp cellars as a result of the downpour and driving was almost impossible in some spots.  

 But it was fright mixed with awe in Markham where that funnel cloud soared over an area where new houses are being built.  

Those working on the site looked for a place to take cover. But Michael Colangelo grabbed his cell phone camera.

"I looked up and saw this funnel cloud, and right in front of the two houses we were working on. And I pulled out my camera phone and started videotaping.

 "About a minute of it spinning around, it started to downpour. Big huge rain drops and the wind coming down and everybody made their way to the houses."  

But residents were just grateful the massive whirlwind seen by many didn't touch down anywhere.

"It is confirmed that it is a funnel cloud," relates Sarah Wong of Environment Canada. "If it does touch the ground, it would be a tornado over Markham...And looking at the pictures, that funnel cloud...did not touch the ground and produce any damage in that area."  

  CityNews viewer Scott King sent us pictures of the cloud as it hung ominously over the area for several minutes.

And just as quickly as it came, it was gone, with the sun replacing it in the skies over Markham.

But the conditions turned violent elsewhere. 

"This is typical for summer severe weather in which you may not get the thunderstorm that your neighbour gets," Wong explains. "But if you get that storm you will get poured on quite a bit. We had reports of penny-sized hail."  

Forecasters blame it all on a warm, humid and unstable air mass that moved into Southern Ontario and warn there could be more to come into the overnight hours.  

 The storm follows another violent disturbance that hit Wednesday night. That one left much of the city awash in puddles and turned some roads into lakes, but unlike the carnage in the northeastern U.S., our mild flood waters quickly receded.  

Spectacular as the light show was, it's also dangerous.  

"Lightning is the number-one weather killer in North America," warns CityNews meteorologist Michael Kuss. "And lighting can strike as much as 16 kilometres away from the source of storm. If you can hear thunder you are in danger of being hit by lightning. Take precautions. That means staying inside. It is still unsettled out there."