2012 Ontario Tornadoes

[on_wx]

2012 featured a rather dull and mundane year for severe weather across the province - especially after a couple of years very damaging storm and tornado events. Nine tornadoes have been confirmed to date, but an unknown number of other tornadoes may have, or have, occurred across the open wilderness that accompanies much of Ontario, or even undetected tornadoes near population centres. Ontario averages about 14 detected tornadoes per year with an unknown number of undetected tornadoes.

Radar showed several classic supercells through the summer across northwestern, north central, and eastern Ontario. These supercells were tornado warned with intense rotation, but they occurred over open wilderness and no tornadoes have been confirmed to date.

Three tornadoes were confirmed in the southwestern, and most populated, portion of the province this year, but all three were very brief and weak F0 tornadoes confirmed by only video evidence with no damage. Annual damaging tornadoes are common in this area, but none occurred this year. These three tornadoes occurred in the three highlighted counties or equivalent on the map below south of a line from Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario.

The strongest tornado of the year, and the only confirmed F2 tornado, occurred undetected on September 8th in southern Lennox and Addington County near the city of Greater Napanee in a rural hamlet named Storms Corners. The tornado caused severe damage with a barn carried 4 kilometres... in addition to a 1.1 tonne piece of farm machinery tossed 100 metres and a 2.75 tonne trailer totally destroyed.

The greatest number of confirmed tornadoes on a single day occurred on July 17th where a line of supercells formed from southern Quebec to Lake Ontario and moved into New York. Just about every county in this area was put under a tornado warning including Ottawa, and divisions in southern Quebec. Radar indicated many areas of rotation, but only two tornadoes could be identified. This area of the province is very rural.

Spelling error... should be Embro not Emro

County or equivalent distribution