Environment Canada says the worst of the storms that travelled across central and eastern Ontario on Sunday is over, but some areas of the province should still brace for wet weather Sunday night.
The federal weather agency placed many municipalities under various warnings and watches — including tornado, severe thunderstorm and rainfall — on Sunday afternoon. All of those weather alerts were lifted by about 10:30 p.m.
Peter Kimbell, an Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist based in Ottawa, confirmed the stormy weather caused damage in Camden East, northwest of Kingston, at around 2:30 p.m., just before the agency issued a tornado watch for some areas.
“There were 20 to 30 trees uprooted or damaged, a roof of the house removed or partly removed, and parts of a few other houses partly removed or partly damaged,” Kimbell said of the damage in Camden East.
Reports of that damage prompted Environment Canada to upgrade tornado watches to warnings towards the east, covering the Ottawa, Cornwall-Morrisburg, Smiths Falls and Brockville areas.
“There were about three or four thunderstorms cells that were exhibiting rotation on radar,” Kimbell said in a phone interview.
“We could not be certain that they were tornadic, but we had to issue a warning for them anyway.”
Kimbell said the damage in Camden East has been the worst reported to Environment Canada, as of Sunday evening. Photos posted to social media also showed downed power lines and broken poles in the hamlet located in Stone Mills Township.
However, Kimbell said some tree damage was also reported in Oxford Mills, near Kemptville, Ont.
Video footage posted to Twitter appears to show a funnel cloud that formed in that area, located south of Ottawa.
Ontario Provincial Police said on Twitter they closed a section of County Rd 121 in Kinmount, near Kawartha Lakes, for “damage sustained during (the) storm.”
Kimbell said Environment Canada cannot confirm at this time whether any tornadoes touched down on Sunday.
“The damage in Camden might have been a down burst. We don’t know,” he said.
The tornado warnings were all downgraded to watches by 5:20 p.m.
“In the big picture, we think we dodged a bullet,” Kimbell said.
The following areas in eastern Ontario remained under tornado watches — meaning conditions are “favourable” for the formation of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms — until around 10 p.m. on Sunday.
- Brockville-Leeds and Grenville
- City of Ottawa
- Cornwall-Morrisburg
- Prescott and Russell
- Smiths Falls-Lanark-Sharbot Lake
- Stirling-Tweed-South Frontenac
Meanwhile, to the west, other areas of the province remained under rainfall and severe thunderstorm warnings for several hours.
“It could very well be more showers and the possibility still of a thunderstorm … but the worst of it is over,” Kimbell said of Sunday’s rough weather.
The storms passed over the Greater Toronto Area earlier Sunday, dumping 70 millimetres of rain in some areas, according to Global News weather specialist Carla Bosacki.
“The Don River, for instance, has started to flood, so that’s causing concern. And there (are) flood warnings in place for the Don River in the Toronto area,” Bosacki said.
Environment Canada’s weather alerts can be found on the agency’s website.