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Southern Ontario Tornado Map


on_wx

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I put together this tornado track map for Southwestern Ontario and the GTA. Click tracks for info.

Note: There is a tornado history project ongoing which has been eliminating, adding, or upgrading tornadoes in Ontario so this map is using old information. This map is also missing majority of info for tornadoes between 1982-1985 other than locations. Tornadoes between 1986-2009 are generally correct for vicinity, but not for direction of paths unless I could find info on damage locations. No specific location information for tornadoes between 2010-2015, so majority of tracks are guessed unless there was enough info to determine the direction of the path.

1950-Present (colour coded for map)

F4: 10

F3: 13

E/F2: 50

E/F1: 161

E/F0: 283

Total: 517

Injuries: 716

Fatalities: 38

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=zVQwX9c2Qa3A.ksqmbhAYAs7o

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I'm surprised there've been so many EF4s up there. Interesting that all of them came from 3 or 4 events.

 

May 2, 1983. 1pm. 30km path, 1/2 km wide. Direct hit on Reeces Corners. Several homes, farms and buildings destroyed along its path, some stripped to foundations. Farms flattened. 13 injured. $10 million in damage (1983$). No tornado warning issued - residents upset.

 

Residents upset... I'd say so. Yikes.

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That is awesome on_wx!

 

I'm sure most have seen this website, but thought it is fantastic for tornado data. You can filter by state.

 

http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/New-York/map

 

The data is derived by here.

 

http://www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/nytorn.htm

 

You can also filter it by state, strength of tornado, etc..

 

Not sure if it is 100% up to date, but a good data set nonetheless.

 

There was an EF3 in 1970 that went right by my wifes parents current house and stayed on the ground for severel miles. They didn't live there at the time, but pretty cool.

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I'm surprised there've been so many EF4s up there. Interesting that all of them came from 3 or 4 events.

 

Residents upset... I'd say so. Yikes.

The 1983 tornado is an interesting one. Same storm as the Harsens Island F3 which continued into ON as f2. There was also an F2 in Cambridge, three F0s in Toronto and an F1 in Stouffville.

EC had reports of the Harsens Island tornado on Walpole Island but they neglected to issue a tornado warning. Sometime later they had a report of a tornado in Reeces Corners which caused major damage so they issued a tornado warning half hour after the tornado. They then expanded the tornado warning to all of Southwest Ontario, GTA, and Muskoka. Read the report.

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Very nice job Mike. When zoomed out you can really see the effect of the lake shadow, especially closer to Lake Erie. Haldimand and Brant counties are complete dead-zones when it comes to tornadic activity.

 

Thanks Mike! I wanted to mirror something like the US tornado history project since we have basically zero resources for tornado history in Canada. The map is a work in progress and I hope to include all of Ontario at some point. 

 

Anyway, quite a few anomalies on there.

 

1. North central and northeast shore of Lake Erie

2. Northern Huron/South Bruce Counties 

3. Waterloo Region - compared to neighbouring Perth/Wellington Counties

4. Durham Region - sudden drop in tornadoes compared to York Region and Toronto

5. Far Southwestern Ontario.

6. Midwestern Ontario to north of the GTA - many long track tornadoes.

7. All ten F4 tornadoes came in four events (1953, 1979, 1983, 1985)

 

For Southwestern Ontario including Lambton, Middlesex, Elgin, Chatham-Kent, and Essex Counties - tornado activity dropped right off after the late 1980s after almost 40 years of steady activity. 

 

There's also a lack of long track tornadoes, even with paths over 20km, from SW Ontario to Niagara Falls. There are a few, but nothing compared to north of London to Hamilton.

 

There are likely a couple upgrades that have taken place, including F2s bumped to F3s, and possibly even an F3 was bumped to F4, but that info hasn't been released yet.

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Very nice!

 

I see one that was within a few blocks of where I live now. 800 meters.

 

F1

August 13, 1956. 19.5km path. 1 injured. Damage to roofs, trees, and hydro poles.

 

At Jane Street trees fell onto and damaged homes.

At Keele an apartment roof was peeled off. 

Between Bathurst and Eglington a tree fell on a car injuring a man.

Shops were damaged on Younge St

A woman was killed by live wires on Bayview, but it doesn't appear to be related to the tornado.

Roofs were torn off homes and buildings through to Victoria Park Ave where trees crushed vehicles and shop fronts "smashed" at O'Connor. 

Along St. Clair Ave much of the same. 

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