The August 20th 2009 Ontario Tornado Outbreak Thread

[Cyclenall]

The Durham Tornado was within 15 minutes of me.

I'm absolutely shocked at what happened on Thursday. I have spent a lot of time going over all the videos and the damage from this historic outbreak. It was just a severe storm that wasn't even that bad but I did see very dark clouds in the distance that later turned out to be what caused the F2 in Durham. I'm pretty close to Durham and when I heard that there was a tornado I didn't believe it at first and dismissed it at first as just straight line winds. When reports of buildings and roofs being completely torn off, I then knew it was a lot worse than I thought before but maybe it was just a gust of wind that was very strong. I then heard a death and couldn't believe it! That has never happened around here except maybe 50 minutes away during the 1985 tornado outbreak. Any tornado deaths in Ontario are very rare, and the fact it happened so close is outrageous.

I went to Durham shortly after to look at some real tornado damage (first time I have ever seen some in person) and they tried to block off the streets but no one cared. I have never seen or experienced anything like it, there were people walking everywhere and groups were talking outside of houses (there wasn't any power in the town). On the main road, I saw a firetruck and then down one of the streets was all the devastation...and crowds of people looking. I got out and took pictures of all the destruction like trees uprooted all over, massive branches caught in the power lines, siding off of a white house that was peeled halfway, and buildings ruined. One early report said that the Home Hardware was destroyed but in reality only one of the flags in front were torn in the middle, LOL. I saw a group of firefighters assessing the ruins and debris laying everywhere. I think there may have been small pockets of F3 damage in the Durham tornado as well as the Vaughan one. I will put up pictures soon.

When I got home, I then started searching for news and to my amazement, a powerful tornado ripped through Vaughan Ontario and it was that famous footage constantly being shown that I saw first. I don't ever recall a tornado ever hitting just outside of Toronto like that one. It was only a matter of time and the events of August 2005 should have clued in Torontonians that they are not immune to tornadoes. Many are saying that they thought this couldn't happen where they were and were completely ignorant to how tornadoes are. Environment Canada has been terrible with warnings this year and previous years, but a blanket of tornado warnings was issued near the 6:00 pm hour that had Vaughan included was in place. I personally would have had all of southern Ontario under a tornado watch starting at 12:00 pm that day because of how favorable conditions were for twisters to spawn all over the place. EC didn't start dishing out watches until they got caught with their pants down (again) after a slew of twisters before 7:30 pm. There has been complaints about no warning in Durham but they had 30 minutes since the tornado warning was up across several counties preceding 4:00 pm. EC rated the Vaughan tornado a F2 but when well built homes that are also new are hollowed out with the entire roof gone and several walls collapsed, I sense weak F3 winds are to blame. The vast majority of the damage is F1-F2.

Radar Images:

Radar of all of southern Ontario and Great Lakes region at 4:50 pm showing many cells ahead of advancing line:



3:10 pm The Supercell(s) are taking shape:



3:50 pm This is very close to when the Durham Ontario tornado hit. The 4:00 pm radar is not as impressive so it might have occurred between the 10 minutes:



6:00 pm Just before the Vaughan tornado formed. I can't make out exactly where on radar and not having the 6:10 pm shot doesn't help:



Videos:

Best tornado ripping apart Durham Ontario. Embedding was disabled on this so you have to click on it to watch it. The girl who shot it was located in The Beer Store at the time. One American network used it for a different area like Woodbridge which was wrong. The footage is insane and I wish I saw it...it's some of the best Ontario tornado footage ever taken IMO:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnZF8z7crg4[/youtube]

2nd best tornado footage from Durham Ontario and the only other one known:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3HtCCipBI0[/youtube]

The Georgian Bay Club tornado footage (Clarksurg Ontario):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLHDE9dNM2c[/youtube]

The Popular Vaughan Tornado Footage:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTxTWc0ShAg[/youtube]

2nd best Vaughan Tornado footage where the Filmer is very close to it!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJHlJX9XTMA[/youtube]

Overview of Durham Ontario Damage and the Conservation area:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjN_f0m_E84[/youtube]

Durham Tornadic Supercell Chase:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR9Xad27WlU


Other news and radar images can be posted in this thread.

[tropicana]

excellent post cycle!
in general, ive found that people in Southern Ontario do not take on weather warnings..and do not heed them seriously.
Weather is such a hot topic for everyone to talk about, but they are mostly clueless as to safety precautions.
Especially when dealing with thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Those tornado warnings were posted just around rush hour when people who were at work were trying to get back home, and of course we all know, commute times can be as long as 2 hours or more for many people. So what happens is that they get stuck out on the highways when the most severe and extreme weather went through that Thursday.
I'm not sure if posting severe weather bulletins any earlier if this instance would have helped, since how many employers would give theer employees time off for something that frankly, no one expected would have materialized such widespread havoc and for many, terror.

I don't know if Environment Canada could take blame on this day. Since in fact, they did post an official weather statement at 3:30am that morning for the risk of severe thunderstorms across Ontario....and by 10:50am on the morning of the 20th, a large Severe Thunderstorm Watch was posted for a vast area from Windosr in the south to Kitchener-Waterloo..with the watch exteneded a few hours later to include areas north of the GTA, stretching all the way up to Peterborough.
As we know, storm watches are very rarely issued outside a 6 hour window.
So I think this day, Environment Canada cannot be blamed for the devastation. The death of the 11 year old boy in Durham was extremely unfortunate, he having took refuge under a bench at a camp site...which probably was the best thing he could have done under the circumstances, (i would have too) it was just a terrible terrible accident.

Ontario is certainly taking a beating this summer, despite it not being as normally hot as it normally gets in the 8th month of the year. Just 11 days earlier, the thunderstorms of the evening of August 9 were so severe the likes of which Southern Ontario has not experienced (in such expanse) for a long time. It had people talking for days after, then came August 20, and everyone forgot.

[Cyclenall]

excellent post cycle!
in general, ive found that people in Southern Ontario do not take on weather warnings..and do not heed them seriously.
Weather is such a hot topic for everyone to talk about, but they are mostly clueless as to safety precautions.
Especially when dealing with thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Thanks, I've found this too. When tornado warnings are issued when nothing much is happening, they just think it's odd and go along with their business which is both hilarious and dangerous since often it won't be that bad just before one strikes. The TV media says go into your basement for safety spot but many just look out their window which is something I would do .

Those tornado warnings were posted just around rush hour when people who were at work were trying to get back home, and of course we all know, commute times can be as long as 2 hours or more for many people. So what happens is that they get stuck out on the highways when the most severe and extreme weather went through that Thursday.
I'm not sure if posting severe weather bulletins any earlier if this instance would have helped, since how many employers would give theer employees time off for something that frankly, no one expected would have materialized such widespread havoc and for many, terror.

If there was a tornado watch posted all over southern Ontario earlier, the chances of people hearing it and keeping it in mind would be higher than just a severe thunderstorm watch posted. What a tornado watch should mean to people is to continually listen for any warnings and updates regularly instead of ignoring it totally. That would have helped greatly.

I don't know if Environment Canada could take blame on this day. Since in fact, they did post an official weather statement at 3:30am that morning for the risk of severe thunderstorms across Ontario....and by 10:50am on the morning of the 20th, a large Severe Thunderstorm Watch was posted for a vast area from Windosr in the south to Kitchener-Waterloo..with the watch exteneded a few hours later to include areas north of the GTA, stretching all the way up to Peterborough.

I'm not blaming EC for that day (the rest, yes) but they could have issued the watches a bit sooner like I said before. Those official weather statements don't grab people's attention as much as official watches I don't think.

As we know, storm watches are very rarely issued outside a 6 hour window.
So I think this day, Environment Canada cannot be blamed for the devastation. The death of the 11 year old boy in Durham was extremely unfortunate, he having took refuge under a bench at a camp site...which probably was the best thing he could have done under the circumstances, (i would have too) it was just a terrible terrible accident.

I thought he died while being in a work shed of some sort? The early reports state he was in a tent. One question I still have though is why wasn't everyone at that day camp notified of a tornado warning 30 minutes before it hit and transported to a building to prepare?

Ontario is certainly taking a beating this summer, despite it not being as normally hot as it normally gets in the 8th month of the year. Just 11 days earlier, the thunderstorms of the evening of August 9 were so severe the likes of which Southern Ontario has not experienced (in such expanse) for a long time. It had people talking for days after, then came August 20, and everyone forgot.

It's been one of the worst storm seasons since at least 2006 which is surprising since it wasn't a hot summer (August 20th did come off the heels of a heat week however). The August 9th event was huge and reminded me of August 2, 2006 bigtime until the 20th...

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

Cyclenell you really have done an amazing job documenting the severe storm that went through Southern Ontario.

I couldn't find the article I originally saw, it had more detail, but this one is close enough.

Team Sask. Not Injured

We're being told they are all safe but a little shaken up after a incident with a tornado Thursday night in Ontario.

The Moose Jaw Mallards are representing Saskatchewan at the Bantam Baseball Championships in Vaughan, Ontario this week, an area that was hit by at least one tornado Thursday night.

Head Coach Mark Mann tells us cars were flipped over, a van was tossed through the air and their bus suffered some damage.

"We kind of saw everything first hand because it was a couple hundred feet in front of us. We were in the restaurant when it hit and the driver was actually on the bus when it hit. It went through and busted a bunch of windows and popped the emergency exit off the roof."

While the local boys escaped injury, a teenager that was out camping near Durham was apparently killed in the storm.
http://www.discovermoosejaw.com/index.p ... Itemid=401

The article I saw also mentioned that the tornado had lifted the bus driver off his seat.

[Cyclenall]

Cyclenell you really have done an amazing job documenting the severe storm that went through Southern Ontario.

Thank you, it took a long time to produce all of that not to mention going through the YouTube videos. As detailed as that is, it could be even more in depth like creating radar loops, listing the areas with tornadic and straight line wind damage, clearer radar pics, etc.

There currently stands eight confirmed tornadoes and 11 suspected total. There might be even more based on the scope of wind damage.

Here are the pictures I took of Durham hours after the tornado hit:

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

Ouch!

Great shots however!

I've only seen tornadoes dancing way out in fields here. I remember seeing 3 funnels forming near my veggie patch too but thankfully they didn't join or drop.