Ooooh What A Night!

Oh what storm! Wow. This was literally a tornado outbreak across the province with (as of the time I am writing this) two confirmed tornadoes and more possible twisters under investigation. The two confirmed tornadoes were in Newmarket and Vaughan where that twister tore through a residential neighbourhood putting a portion of the GTA in a state of emergency. A possible tornado in the town of Durham caused damage to a number of buildings and high winds in that community resulted in the death of an 11 year old boy when the structure he was taking shelter in collapsed. Tornado sightings stretched from Southern Ontario to as far north as North Bay where a waterspout possibly made landfall which would count as a tornado (if confirmed). Here in Peterborough heavy rain and lightning lead to a power outage postponing the Peterborough Laker's game and left many in the dark. East of the city (toward Norwood) high winds levelled a barn and tore the roof off of a home. Although not a tornado, this was likely caused by a rapidly sinking column of air known as a microburst. (Resulting in a very powerful straight line wind gust).

So why did this happen? Well the short answer is that Ontario was as hot as "Soup" yesterday. It was into the mid-thirties with the humidex value yesterday and all of the ingredients for severe weather were in this "soup." High dewpoint, muggy conditions, a hot daytime high and an approching front of cold air just ready to force this warm, sticky air aloft. A line of storms was the result and, although they are over, the damage is left as a reminder to the power of "Ma' Nature." Very scary stuff but luckily no injuries have been reported across the region.

So now what? Well...now we move on and enjoy the fact that, here in Peterborough, we dodged a bullet. Even though the weekend forecast isn't perfect, Mother Nature isn't likely to throw anything as severe as yesterday's storm our way so get out and enjoy it. There is a bunch of activities taking place across the region including the wrap on this years Festival of Lights in Peterborough and tomorrow's Regional Maple Syrup Day in Campbellford (Doors open at 8am at St. John's United Church in Campbellford).

What a storm...but now we'll focus on Bill. Follow my updates on Bill on Twitter (the link is on the side of the blog) and we'll see you Monday.

Jay

Microburst?

After seeing the damage caused by Monday's late afternoon thunderstorm that tore through Omemee and Enismore I decided I should post this video. I managed to get out to the Pigeon Lake area yesterday armed with a camera (and a tripod) and I even had a chance to speak with some of the residents. This damage was likely caused by a downburst or microburst. The damage appeared to be the result of "straight line" wind and not a tornado as the trees all seemed to fall or snap off in the same general direction. This serves as an important reminder that it doesn't take a tornado or a hurricane for life threatening wind to occur during a thunderstorm. Very scary stuff. Oh and Deb...sorry about the car. If you enjoyed this video please check out my You Tube channel where I'll be posting more in the near future. Click here to follow the "Weather Nerd."