Storm causes tornado-like damage in Brampton

WATCH: A rude awakening for residents in a Brampton neighbourhood when a powerful storm swept through. Environment Canada is on the scene right now surveying the damage. Mark Carcasole reports.

TORONTO – Environment Canada confirmed Wednesday that no tornado touched down in  Brampton overnight after areas of the city experienced tornado-like damage that split trees in half and tore down part of a warehouse.

Geoff Coulson, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, says that a  strong “downburst” happened in Brampton around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.

“Everything I’ve seen in terms of  the damage so far, the imagery of some trees down, the wall down from the warehouse, would be consistent  with winds a the lowest end of the damage scale, so called EF-Zero damage, winds between about 90 and 100 kmh,” Coulson said.

A downburst happens when rain-cooled air reaches ground levels and then spreads out in different directions, creating strong, damaging winds.

At around same time in Toronto, the Don Valley Parkway and other parts of the Greater Toronto Area flooded after approximately 60 mm of precipitation fell during an early morning rainstorm.

“These types of events, the damaging winds events, heavy rain events, are all part of the summer weather season in the Province of Ontario. While these things do happen, they are relatively rare,” Coulson said.

With files from Global News’ Mark Carcasole.