Storm chaser’s close call inspires Facebook page
Adam Skinner had chased extreme weather in Dufferin County a “million times” before, but it was a close call in Melancthon that inspired the creation of the Ontario Tornado Watch Facebook page and its more than 209,000 following today.
Caught in an extreme weather event outside of Dufferin County on April 18, 2013, Skinner and his driver attempted to flee the nasty conditions into Melancthon. However, this time the severe storm system would track them.
As the strong winds pushed their vehicle all over the road near Dufferin County Road 17 and Highway 10, an 75,000-square-foot horse stable “exploded” when a tornado touched down beside them. Skinner would later learn a woman inside had survived the tornado after hanging onto a bar inside the barn.
“The walls started to float away. The barn kind of opened up like something out of a movie. It was nuts,” Skinner recalled. “The force of the winds were holding the car to the ground. (My driver) put it to the floor and we were going maybe 50 km/h. We were just chugging to go forward.”
Environment Canada would later confirm an EF1 tornado touched down near Hwy. 10 and County Road 17, creating wind speeds between 135 and 167 km/h.
With the storm heading toward Barrie, Skinner immediately thought about the many calls he would need to make to warn members of his family there. Environment Canada had not issued a tornado warning yet.
“I said, ‘We got to start a Facebook page.’ Because there was not a tornado warning on that storm,” Skinner recalled telling fellow storm chasers Adam Clarke and Dave Patrick near the tornado site. “That was the birth of Ontario Tornado Watch.”
Today, the Facebook page boasts more than 209,000 followers. Skinner has also created a company, Instant-Weather Inc., which employs the same radar data used by Environment Canada to alert the public about severe weather.
“I think we are a complement of their system. We issue custom alerts, but we also share Environment Canada’s official warnings,” Skinner said. “The combination of both of our services, I think, is the best option for folks.”
For a $3.39 monthly fee, Instant-Weather sends subscribers customized text alerts. Skinner said his company is currently working on a developing a free app.
Since Environment Canada is the only entity legally permitted to issue warning or watches, Skinner noted Ontario Tornado Watch and Instant-Weather issue “alerts” to fill any gaps in the extreme weather reporting process.
For example, Ontario Tornado Watch alerted the public of “very strong rotation, likely a tornado heading toward Windsor” in August of last year about 20 minutes before Environment Canada issued its warning.
“People got the text message at 7:07 p.m. They didn’t get the tornado warning until 7:28 p.m. in that circumstance. That doesn’t happen every time,” Skinner warned.
“We issue alerts. Legally, they issue warnings. We phone everything in. If we see rotation, if we get a report of a tornado, we immediately phone that into Environment Canada,” Skinner said. “What we do, again, is complimentative (sic). We just really want to help.”
Interestingly, Skinner noted the 2013 tornado in Melancthon was the first Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale tornado in Canadian history.
Up until then, tornadoes in Canada had classified based on the Fujita scale prior to upgrading to the EF classification.
The Enhanced Fujita scale measures storms from EF0, the weakest end of the scale with winds of 90 to 130 km/h, to EF5, where winds exceed 315 km/h.
“It was interesting that was the fundamental change that happened at the exact same point Ontario Tornado Watch was born,” Skinner said, noting Environment Canada now utilizes its own unique EF model compared what’s been used in the United States for years.
“We finally upgraded in 2013. It is just a better classification of what damage decides what wind speed,” he said.
“That (Melancthon tornado) was the first enhanced Fujita Tornado in Canadian history,”