An EF0 tornado with wind speeds of more than 100 kilometres per hour is confirmed to have developed in Talbotville, Ont., on Tuesday and marks the first recorded tornado in Ontario so far this year.
According to a survey undertaken by the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP), a funnel cloud in the Talbotville area formed at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The funnel cloud then formed into a tornado, with wind speeds reaching up to 115 kilometres per hour.
While a damage path of at least 2.4 kilometres long and 40 metres wide was discovered, no injuries have been reported.
David Sills, executive director of the NTP, says the damage was “pretty light” but a two-by-four from a broken picnic table penetrated the wall of a nearby restaurant.
“So clearly, even with a weak tornado, you know, you can get debris that can really hurt somebody.”
Kat McComb, a storm chaser based out of nearby St. Thomas, saw online that a funnel cloud was seen in the area so she, her 12-year-old son, and her 26-year-old daughter hopped in the van to watch the storm.
“And as I was coming into Talbotville, that was when I saw the damage at London Waffle Company. And we stopped in there to make sure that everybody was OK.”
McComb added that her children love storm chasing too but she only takes her 12-year-old son out on “light chase days.”
“The heavier ones where we’re chasing for hours and hours and I’m going all over Ontario, he stays home with my older son, his wife, and my grandbaby.”
She says she took photographs and video of the damage and shared it with Sills after confirming that no one inside the restaurant was injured.
“Chasers are a family. We are a very tight-knit group of people. And the Northern Tornadoes Project does amazing things. They’re out there investigating everything that could be a tornado across Canada and then reporting their findings. And their research allows us to get better at chasing.”
Based on that research, Sills knows that June 13 is late to record Ontario’s first tornado of the year.
“Usually we see that in May, sometimes even April or March. And across Canada, it’s been fairly quiet. We’ve only had five or six tornadoes back in the Prairies starting in May,” he said.
“Not a lot of big damaging tornadoes across Canada so far this summer and this is a good thing.”