Special Weather Statement - Ontario Outbreak

John Hudson

John Hudson

EF4
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
372
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba
EC has issued a special weather statement regarding the severe weather outbreak on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009.

Up to eleven tornadoes - eight confirmed and another three under investigation - tore across southern Ontario in Thursday's severe weather outbreak. This one day total equals the seasonal normal number of tornadoes for this region of Canada.

The supercell responsible for the Durham and Thornbury, ON tornadoes traveled for a distance of 200 km (124 miles) from Lake Huron before dissipating near Georgian Bay.

The full text of the weather statement is available here:http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/SWS_bulletins_e.html?prov=on


John
VE4 JTH
 
I have been wondering about long track tornados in Canada .
I know we have all seen Reed's Manitoba video , but that seems
to be all I can find for up there ( long track that is ). I must be
wrong but did it say the Durham/Thornbury tornado was a F-2 ?
 
Jason Young said:
I have been wondering about long track tornados in Canada .
I know we have all seen Reed's Manitoba video , but that seems
to be all I can find for up there ( long track that is ). I must be
wrong but did it say the Durham/Thornbury tornado was a F-2 ?
Click to expand...

Since you're interested in the history of tornadoes in Canada here is some info: Canada's deadliest tornado ever hit Regina Saskatchewan on June 30, 1912 killing 28 people and the Edmonton F4 traveled 22 miles, was almost a mile wide at one time and killed 27 people. A small tornado alley exists in southern Ontario from Windsor to Orangeville. Info from the book "Extreme Weather" 2003 edition.
 
I asked my friends over at EC one time and their answer basically was that they wanted to make sure the new scale works okay. I think EC might be looking into implementing it sometime. When I dunno lol.
 
Hmmm, what other Canadian tornado video does that bowl-shaped lowering with intermittent condensing vorticies beneath it remind me of? :eek:
 
Rob, the problem is... most Canadians don't expect this kind of thing to happen here. Most of them have the "it won't happen here" mentality. Another problem is that although EC issued the tornado warning about a half hour before, most people were not aware of one being issued. This is an issue being discussed with the federal/provincial government now... there needs to be a system in place to get these warnings out to people. They do issue warnings but what good are they if they cannot be relayed properly? We need sirens or something to let the general public become more aware of severe weather warnings. And only a few schools do a tornado drill once a year.

Right now, in Canada you can only access warnings via the internet, radio or tv and most people don't own a weather radio. Most people are so busy with themselves these days and can't be bothered to check out the weather. And if they do see some bizarre weather event, they will film it if given the chance.... Canadians love to talk about the weather and witnessing an event like this is something else... anywhere in the world, people will go out and try to catch it on film (a la local "chasers" down in the plains during outbreaks)... it's just human nature, and unfortunately not a wise decision.

Unfortunately it takes an event like this to make people realize that, ok, it does happen here after all and not just in Kansas. Tornadoes anywhere in the world can do destruction and kill, and Canada is not excluded from that risk.
 
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