Tornado touched down Monday night
Environment Canada confirmed Tuesday afternoon that a tornado touched down in the Edgar area north of Barrie during the severe thunderstorm that later passed through Peterborough and the Kawarthas, prompting tornado warnings in the Peterborough area Monday night.
The severe thunderstorm spawned a tornado at 8:05 p.m. from Guthrie to Oro Station in Simcoe County and possibly across Lake Simcoe, according to Environment Canada. The tornado was recorded by many in photos and videos.
“The tornado had a maximum path width of 200 metres and a track length about five kilometres,” according to the Ontario Storm Prediction Centre.
“The severe thunderstorm developed just east of Wasaga Beach and tracked north of Barrie, across Lake Simcoe and toward Lindsay. Based on the damage survey by Environment Canada the tornado is rated as an upper end EF-0 with maximum wind speeds of 120 km/h.”
An EF-0 tornado has the lowest wind speed range on the Fujita intensity scale and typically causes only minor damage.
Damage to trees, fences, small structures have been reported so fair, Environment Canada said, and a 20-metre tall metal communication tower was broken in half.
“There were additional storms last evening north of Lake Ontario,” the Ontario Storm Prediction Centre stated.
“If anyone experienced significant damage from last evening’s storms it can be reported through an email to ONstorm@canada.ca or tweet reports using #ONStorm.
A combination of heat and humidity provided the ingredients for the development of a ‘super cell’ thunderstorm, said Gerald Cheng, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
“It is significant enough that it produced a tornado,” Cheng said.
“Thunderstorms can form in 30 minutes. They can become severe once they’ve formed in less than 10 minutes, so it’s important to keep an eye on them all the time.”
Peterborough and the Kawarthas seemed to have escaped the thunderstorm relatively unscathed, although for many people in the area it was the first time they had received a tornado warning alert directly to their cellphones.
Nightfall approached as the storm moved east past Lake Simcoe and toward Peterborough and the Kawarthas.
“That would reduce visibility and, naturally, after that there wouldn’t be a lot of eyewitnesses,” Cheng said.
Environment Canada relies on reports from the public in augmenting information provided by Environment Canada’s own weather stations and network of volunteer weather observers, he added.
“The more people the better, because then you can corroborate reports,” Cheng said.
Thunderstorms are most frequent in summer and spring, he said.
“With any thunderstorms, there is always that risk of tornado, hail, heavy downpours and damaging winds,” Cheng said.