Even a quiet tornado season in Ontario

[Laura Duchesne]

I guess the plains isn't the only place where it was a quiet tornado season this year. Take Ontario for example... only 4 confirmed tornadoes this season... usually we see more.

1. Bracebridge-Port Carling - May 16th - F0
2. Greening Bay (southeast shore of Lake Nipissing) - June 16th - F0
3. Duntroon (South of Collingwood) - June 18th - F1
4. Wartburg (10 km north of Stratford) - June 19th - F1

I thought last year was a bad chase year... I am just glad I went for the plains this year because I would be very dissipointed chasing locally. I haven't chased here yet this season because none of the "storms" were worth the trip. Any storm we get seems to get "2006'ed" as well... it starts off looking okay, then it just craps out. And can you say elevated boys and girls?

 

[Eric Van Lochem]

I'm quite surprised too -- not much to add here, except my disappointment with how this year has been so far!

After last year, I didn't think it could have gotten much worse than that, but at this point 2005 seems far more interesting than this year so far! The cold core-type storms we got last week were fun for the time being but we really haven't seen a true severe outbreak this year. I remember that 2001 was just about as slow as this one, but there were a few events even then that made it worth it (ie. July 4, July 22, August 19).

The peak of the season tends to fall around late July - early August, so there's still a lot of time left. One thing I have noticed these past few years, we have been in a veritable "storm drought" around here in Ontario! There hasn't been a year lately that I (perhaps you feel the same way) felt particularly satisfied with what Mother Nature had to dish out. It would be nice if we had a string of years like 1993-2000 (the good old days), where we consistently managed to rack up at least 15 tornadoes per season like we were supposed to!

Perhaps there's a silver lining to the slowness of this year, this is the first summer I have had to work (and quite a bit too), so I haven't had as much time to do what I like to do best! :lol:

Eric

 

[StephenLevine]

Have you at least had a good electrical storm season so far, or has that also been in a drought?

 

[Eric Van Lochem]

I know some places have seen some isolated events so far this year (especially the lake-breeze/cold-core variety), that looked quite decent at the time but were quite brief in general. I personally haven't seen a good storm, there was one on May 17th that dished out some lightning bolts but not a whole lot.

As for "electrical" type storms, usually we have one good nighttime event that occassionally produces some great lightning which so far hasn't happened yet. Perhaps I am splitting hairs to some degree but...

In any case, it just hasn't been very active this year in Ontario -- it seems that in North America, the activity suddenly died down by mid-late April, which is the usual start to the season here (hasn't really picked up since).

Eric

 

[Tom Stefanac]

Well it is not all bad, it could be worse. At least the weather is nice and hot, there is nothing I hate more than snow in July!

Hey Eric, remember last time? Holy gees, I thought I would never get out of my igloo, at least this year we are seeing rain instead of snow!

:lol:

July 3rd, 5:12PM - Supercell producing a tornado near Cobourg Ontario. (100km/62mi ENE of Toronto)

 

[Eric Van Lochem]

Oh yeah, I remember that particular storm now!

Any idea if the tornado near Cobourg was confirmed or not? Looking at the radar, that hook and the V-notch would certainly make it seem so -- I don't quite remember the setup for that day, but I think a cold front was coming through...

BTW I saw your funnel and wall cloud pics from yesterday, I really liked them! Quite a good catch considering you didn't even have to leave the city. In any case I'm rather surprised at how severe the day got, I briefly checked the models and read the SPC discussion not thinking a whole lot of it during the morning; perhaps I overlooked something, been busy with work lately!

Eric

 

[Laura Duchesne]

Well it seems that the season is picking up slightly recently... now just to wait for chaseable storms in chaseable areas.... chasing around Toronto isn't my cup of tea.