The eyes have it. Weather watcher volunteers play key role
WATERLOO — The whole room gasped, as they watched the farmhouse explode, its roof flying skyward and dissolving into debris as a car rocketed past.
They jumped in their seats as the lightning hit the heavy-duty wooden hydro pole, instantly splintering it into matchsticks.
In the space of about two hours, Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson showed a gallery of hair-raising videos and images to his class of volunteer weather watchers. There were scenes from the 2007 tornado — the only documented F5 tornado to ever hit Canada — that tore through the Manitoba community of Elie; pictures of softballsized hail; flash floods ripping up roads in suburban Toronto; piles of debris in what had once been the tree-lined central square in Goderich, after it was destroyed by a tornado in 2011.
The group of about 50 people gathered at a meeting room in RIM Park last week, for an evening learning how to spot and report severe weather as part of a network of volunteer weather watchers.
As it braces for storm season, the federal weather service is holding 40 training sessions across Ontario this spring for its volunteers. The network of weather spotters, known as CanWarn, numbers about 7,000 people, from farmers to first responders.
The period between May and August is when we see the most
intense and destructive wind storms, flash foods, tornadoes and deadly lightning strikes. Damaging wind that hit earlier this month, with winds of up to 122 km/h, were another reminder that spring and summer are not only the season of barbecues and festivals, but also of potentially deadly weather.
Despite ongoing advances in the powers of computers and the science of forecasting, there’s still an important role for eyewitness information from people in the heart of the action, Coulson said. “Even with all this science and technology, we still need CanWarn and people reporting on what’s happening on the ground.”
Radar can’t always pick up isolated storms, or smaller, weaker tornadoes, he said. Especially in summer, storms can form and move quickly. On-the-ground reports can help refine forecasts and warn communities in the path of a storm, he said.
Canada isn’t Kansas — we only get a fraction of the 1,200 tornadoes that strike the American Midwest every year. But our country is still one of the most tornado-prone countries in the world, with about 80 twisters striking every year. And this area is a tornado hot spot: twisters strike most often in southwest and central Ontario, the Prairies and Quebec.
That was obvious from the variety of images Coulson showed, many of which were recent and relatively nearby: Barrie, Huntsville, Grey County, Midland, Goderich.
Ron Martin of Kitchener has been a weather spotter for years; as a pilot he knows the importance of having a good handle on local weather conditions. “We can be very beneficial to our neighbours if we see something develop and report it,” he said.
The network started in 1987, in the wake of a deadly Edmonton tornado, with a group of ham radio operators. Today spotters are just as likely to send in reports via email, tweet or phone.
While the session focused on signs of dangerous weather and what to report, it also stressed safety, with Coulson urging volunteers to stay well back from risky situations. “CanWarn is all about spotting and not chasing,” he said.