List of Canadian tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

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This page lists tornadoes and tornado outbreaks which have touched down in Canada since 1792, this is not a complete listing of all events and range from violent to less damaging tornadoes. On average, there are around 80 confirmed and many more unconfirmed tornadoes that touch down in Canada each year, the vast majority are rated as F0 or F1, not regarded as severe and usually cause minor structural damages to barns, wood fences, down small power lines and uproot or snap tree limbs. The peak tornado season in Canada is in the summer months, as opposed to the spring season in US.

The reported increase in numbers of tornadoes in recent years may reflect better record keeping rather than an actual increase in tornado occurrence (although natural increase has not been ruled out), in addition to better detection technology ie. Doppler weather radar and satellite imagery. The upswing could also be attributed to other factors, such as improved aerial and ground damage assessment after the fact in sparsely populated areas (particularly the case in remote parts of the Canadian Prairies and Northern Ontario, for example), better trained spotter capabilities and increased population. Whatever the case, tornadoes are enough of a threat to public safety in Canada for a public warning system to be in place, overseen by the national weather agency, Environment Canada.

For a variety of reasons, such as sturdier construction for buildings to withstand the harsher winters and Canada's lower population density, Canadian tornadoes have historically caused far fewer fatalities than tornadoes in the United States. The deadliest tornado in Canadian history, the Regina Cyclone of June 30, 1912, does not even rank in the top 25 when compared to American tornado fatalities.

[edit] Before 1880

1792

1829

  • June 2. Only the infancy of settlement, a large tornado hits Guelph, destroying buildings and leaving the town inactive for the next 3 years.

1844

1845

  • September 20. A tornado outbreak felled thousands of trees in Ontario and Quebec and produced a tornado which tracked for 443 km across Lakes Ontario and Champlain.

1855

1860

  • May 19. Homes, fences and trees were demolished by a 500 m wide tornado near Aurora, Ontario. Hailstones up to 8 cm in diameter also fell.

1879

[edit] 1880s

1880

  • June 10. A 200 m wide tornado touches down at Listowel, Ontario lifting a man up into the air. He grabs on to a bridge to save himself.

1884

1885

1888

[edit] 1890s

1892

[edit] 1900s

[edit] 1910s

1912

1913

  • March 21 The area between Windsor, Ontario and Cobalt in Ontario was affected by winds gusting up to 150 km/h. 7 people were killed during the storm which also damaged buildings and uprooted trees. .

[edit] 1920s

1920

  • July 22. A strong tornado passes through rural Southeastern Saskathchewan, killing 4, and injuring 13 more. The Canadian Red Cross provided relief on behalf of the government to 42 affected families in Alameda, Frobisher, Lampman, Steelman, and Estevan. This was Canada's first F5 tornado since records have been kept.

1922

1923

1926

[edit] 1930s

1935

1939

[edit] 1940s

1946

1949

[edit] 1950s

1950

1953

1954

  • White Point Beach, NS Tornado, January 30. A great deal of hail and lightning along the coast, touched down near Liverpool, Nova Scotia. It is a very unusual, but not unheard of mid-winter tornado.

1955

  • Nanaimo, British Columbia Tornado, April 25. A tornado near Nanaimo, BC caused minor damages.

1958

  • Watrous, Saskatchewan Tornado, April 16. A tornado at Watrous, Saskatchewan destroying a large barn and scattering pigs up to 5 km from the barn.
  • Hensall, Ontario Tornado, A tornado tracking between Hensall and Dublin in Ontario killed one person. April 17.
  • Amaranth, Manitoba Tornado, May of 1958.

1959

  • Southern Manitoba Tornado, June 6. A tornado destroyed a garage in La Salle, Manitoba, yet the car inside the garage was not damaged. The tornado could be seen 15 km away in Winnipeg.

[edit] 1960s

1962

1966

1967

  • Huron - Perth Tornado (Southern Ontario, $1 million dollars damage)

1968

  • Watson, Saskatchewan Tornado A tornado hit Watson, SK destroying a car shed amongst other things. April 11.

[edit] 1970s

1970

1973

1974

1975

1977

1978

1979

[edit] 1980s

1980

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

  • Lampman, Saskatchewan Tornado, May 6. Minor tornado touches down near Lampman, Saskatchewan.
  • Northern Saskatchewan Tornadoes, June 1. Three tornadoes touched down in Saskatoon. Roofs and windows in the area were damaged by high winds and hailstones.

1987

  • Winnipeg, Manitoba Tornado, Winnipeg, Manitoba; a thunderstorm caused at least two tornadoes in Winnipeg; strong winds and 40 millimetres of rain in two and a half hours caused flash flooding and resulted in considerable property damage.
  • Edmonton Tornado, July 31. Strong F4, possibly F5, along with a few other weaker tornadoes. Edmonton, Alberta and surrounding areas. 27 dead, 253 injured. See article for in-depth information. One of Canada's strongest tornadoes, and the second deadliest tornado (after the 1912 Regina Cyclone).
  • Montreal Tornado of 1987, Montréal, Quebec; a tornado caused by a severe thunderstorm dropped 100 millimetres of rain in an hour which resulted in severe flooding across the city; the storm also caused intense winds which uprooted large trees and toppled hydro lines.

1988

  • Vancouver Tornado, May 1. Weak tornado grazes eastern Metro Vancouver.
  • Medicine Hat, Alberta Tornado, Medicine Hat, Alberta; tornado caused an estimated $50 million in damage.

1989

  • Saskatchewan Tornado Outbreak of 1989, June 19. Eight tornadoes touched down over central Saskatchewan. Winds gusted up to 130 km/h and hail shredded crops at Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan.
  • New Brunswick Tornado Outbreak, August 14. Three tornadoes touch down in New Brunswick. One of the tornadoes affects Carlisle where trees are uprooted and a barn is destroyed, but amazingly 22 out of 24 glass storm windows stored inside are left undamaged.
  • Mont-Saint-Hilaire tornado, November 16. An F2 tornado caused 2 million dollars in damage in the community east of Montreal. This is the latest in the year tornado recorded in the province of Quebec. It also occurred during the same tornado outbreak as the Huntsville, Alabama Tornado.

[edit] 1990s

1990

1991

  • Sarnia, Ontario Tornado of 1991, Sarnia, Ontario; tornado caused an estimated $25 million in damage.
  • Mauricie Tornado of 1991, August 27. St. Lawrence River, Quebec; the tornado affected the village of Maskinongé; the tornado crossed the St. Lawrence River and touched down in Notre-Dame-de-Pierreville where a few summer cottages were destroyed and some minor injuries occurred; it also touched down in Saint-Wenceslas where minor damage was reported; there were no deaths, 15 people injured, only one seriously; 60% of all buildings in the village of Maskinonge, Quebec were damaged, the power lines were down and telephone service stopped; no drinking water was available; estimated $13 million in damage, leaving 100 homeless. Occurred in the Maskinongé Regional County Municipality, Quebec of the Mauricie Region.
  • Prince George, British Columbia Tornado, July 2. Prince George, British Columbia was affected by a severe thunderstorm which dumped 15.4 mm rain in 25 minutes on the Prince George Airport. In downtown hail fell, there was flooding and at Clucluz Lake, British Columbia a tornado uprooted trees.

1992

  • June 24. Tornadoes, large hail and torrential downpours affected southern Manitoba. Tennis ball sized hail fell near Morden, Manitoba and winds gusting to 154 km/h were recorded at Pilot Mound, Manitoba. There were also five confirmed tornado touchdowns and numerous funnel clouds. The region had been affected by severe weather the day before as well.

1994

  • Saint-Charles, Quebec, July 9, One person was killed when an F2 tore through the town located east of Montreal. 3 other person were injured, about a dozen homes were damaged.
  • Aylmer, Quebec Tornado, August 4 F3. The tornado in Aylmer, Quebec across the river from Ottawa, Ontario, injures 15 people. The tornado path was 8 km long and caused major damage to a downtown residential subdivision including homes destroyed. A second tornado had previously touched down just across the Ottawa River in Carp. In Quebec, other tornadoes touched down near Laurel and Rawdon [2]
  • Birtle, Manitoba. F4 tornado. Date unknown, no injuries or deaths.[1]

1995

1996

  • Southern Ontario Tornadoes of 1996, Grey, Wellington and Dufferin counties, Ontario, on April 20, 1996. Two F3 class tornadoes touched down in Grey County (Williamsford), Wellington County and Dufferin County. Significant property damage occurred; nine people were injured by the two tornadoes.
  • May 20. A strong thunderstorm damages one of the four screens of a drive-in theatre at Thorold in the Niagara Region. Coincidentally, this drive-in was planning to show the movie Twister that evening. Eyewitnesses report seeing a small funnel cloud, but the physical evidence is inconclusive. Distorted and exaggerated media reports of this event abound; most claimed that the storm blew down the screen while Twister was being shown on it. The storm actually took place before sundown. However, a small tornado did touchdown in Stoney Creek that same evening.

1997

1998

  • Norwich, Ontario June 2. During a severe weather outbreak in Southern Ontario in the mid-afternoon, an F1 tornado dropped near Holbrook around 3:50PM and travelled southeastward to Norwich, damaging many buildings, including a church. There were also tornado reportings in Elmvale and Dunnville, and several reports of funnel clouds, hail, and high winds.
  • A small F1 tornado goes through part of Saint-Émile, in the suburbs of Quebec City, it overturns a shed, damages three and causes a city-wide electricity loss when a garage is slammed into an electric pole.[3]

1999

[edit] 2000s

2000

2001

  • June 19 Saguenay Tornado. Alma in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area was struck by an F2 tornado which lasted about half a minute and destroyed two houses, a barn and a garage as well as uprooting trees and damaging roofs. A second funnel cloud was observed the same region just 3 weeks later.
  • July 4. Quebec and Southeastern Ontario had some severe weather. There was heavy rain, strong winds and 2 cm hail. Tornadoes touched down in Ayr, Argyle, Campbellville and Fenelon Falls (all in Ontario), the strongest of them rated an F2.

2002

2003

  • June 11 Laval, Quebec was struck by an F1 Tornado that damaged trees, and many warehouses in the industrial park just north of Autoroute 440. It also caused some vehicles to go off the road as it crossed west to east both lanes of Autoroute 15 during rush hour.

2004

  • May 22 - May 2004 Tornado Outbreak Sequence, two, strong F2 intensity tornadoes struck at 6pm, one near Mitchell, Ontario and the other in nearby Gad's Hill causing extensive property and infrastructure damage.
  • July 8, an F0-F1 tornado touched down in Grande Prairie, Alberta, causing damage to homes and businesses outlets and flipping over vehicles.
  • July 31, 4 tornadoes touched down in southern Quebec, with an F1 in Chateauguay on Montreal's south shore, another F1 in Durham-Sud, an F1 in St-Albert, which cut a path of 6 km long, and also an F0 in Chesterville.
  • August 10, two tornadoes touched down in the Ottawa region, one in Burnstown and another in Thurso. Both were rated F1's

2005

2006

  • July 4 Glassville, New Brunswick Tornado Of 2006. An F1 strikes Glassville, NB, 40 km (25 miles) south of Perth Andover, New Brunswick. A great deal of forest and structural damage, but no injuries or deaths.[2]
  • July 17, an F1 tornado struck Newmarket, Ontario at night, packing winds of 120 to 170 kilometres an hour, cut a swath of damage 10 km long and 100 metres wide in the Woodbine Avenue/Davis Drive area around 10:15 p.m. At about the same time, an F0, with winds up to 115 km/h, was wreaking havoc in a small section of the Stonehaven subdivision, off Leslie Street south of Mulock Drive.
  • July 17 An F1 ( possibly a weak F2?) hit a La Baie du Diable campground in Ferme-Neuve, Quebec moving RV's and breaking trees.
  • July 25 An F0 tornado destroyed a barn in Hebertville, Lac St-Jean, Quebec. The same storm produced hail that reached 5-6cm (2 in) in diameter and caused 2 million Canadian dollars damage in the agricultural community.
  • August 1, An F2 tornado struck the community of Lac Drolet in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, destroying a house.
  • August 2, a number of homes and cottages damaged or completely destroyed by a tornado in Combemere, Ontario located in the Upper Ottawa Valley. The same storm system spawned an outbreak of at least eight tornadoes between north of Barrie, Ontario and Peterborough, Ontario, which damaged cottages in the area, some severely. It was the most tornadoes recorded in Ontario in a single 24-hour span day since 1985. The strongest were two F2s striking near Bancroft, Ontario, and a direct hit on Combermere, Ontario. [3]
  • August 4, in Gull Lake, Manitoba an F2 tornado killed a woman at a campground north of Winnipeg.
  • August 20, An F2 tornado hit the community of La Broquerie in southern Manitoba, destroying a house.

2007

  • May 15, 2007. Mitchell, Ontario Tornado. An F1 tornado struck the Mitchell, Ontario area around 60 km northeast of London, Ontario, causing minor damage. It was the third significant tornado to hit the Mitchell are in a three-year span. The same storm system that caused this tornado also produced a couple other tornadoes (an F0 and an F1) in The Thumb area of Michigan, northern Indiana, and Ohio before crossing Lake Huron into Ontario.
  • June 22 - June 23, 2007. Eastern Prairie Outbreak. A rare combination of weather systems converged on a June weekend causing severe thunderstorms which spawned at least 8 tornadoes across Southeast Saskatchewan and Southern Manitoba. The most significant, and the first confirmed F5 tornado in Canada was an F5 which touched down near Elie, Manitoba [4] destroying 4 homes, flipping one home-owner's Chrysler Fifth Avenue onto a neighbour's roof, and heavily damaging a flour mill. Because the tornado crossed directly over one of the most travelled portions of the Trans-Canada Highway, a large number of photos and videos were taken. The F5 Elie tornado was described "as bad as they ever get here in Canada" by meteorologist Dave Carlsen of Environment Canada, while he told Canwest Global affiliate CKND-TV [5][1][6]. A large F3 wedge tornado also touched down near Pipestone, Manitoba and Baldur, Manitoba[7]. Surprisingly there were a minimal amount of reported injuries resulting from all of the tornadoes. There were also sightings of 3 small tornadoes becoming one[8]. One of the tornadoes in this outbreak also traveled 15 km (9 miles) south of Baldur, Manitoba and was rated an F3 on the Fujita scale. [9][10].
  • July 8, Mayerthorpe, Alberta. A tornado hit 20 km south of Mayerthorpe. There were reports of tornadoes in the area at approx. 5:15 PM (EST). Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm watches and warnings were scattered through central Alberta.
  • On the same date in Southern Ontario, there were two reported tornadoes by storm chasers/reporters near the Walkerton area in Bruce County. Hail to the size of tennis balls were also reported from the same supercell that travelled from the Bruce Peninsula to the Kitchener-Waterloo area between 6 PM and 8 PM EDT.[11]. One of these tornadoes was reported near Mildmay, Ontario (in Bruce County) and confirmed as an F1. The tornado destroyed a large implementation shed. Debris reported 1.5 km away (nearly a mile), 50 kg drums moved. Another tornado is sighted in the area but unconfirmed touchdown.[12]
  • July 29, Gander Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador. An F0 tornado touched down in Wing's Point, crossed over to Main Point, and flipped a few skidoo trailers over before dissipitating. One of very few to strike Newfoundland and Labrador.

2008

  • There have been no tornadoes to date in 2008 within Canada, but this may change as warmer weather approaches.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Elie Tornado Upgraded to Highest Level on Damage Scale Canada's First Official F5 Tornado
  2. ^ Tornado hits New Brunswick - CBC.ca
  3. ^ Toronto Star
  4. ^ Environment Canada confirms violent F4 tornado hit southwestern Manitoba tornado (WEA-Mba-Tornado) - http://www.oilweek.com
  5. ^ Reported on page B1 in the Windsor Star, Windsor, Ontario, June 23, 2007.
  6. ^ CTV.ca | Manitoba tornado was strongest ever
  7. ^ 'Moderate' risk of more tornadoes in Manitoba - CBC.ca
  8. ^ Tornado Touches Down in McHenry County (June 22, 2007)
  9. ^ http://twister.sbs.ohio-state.edu/text/canada/AWCN11.CWWG
  10. ^ More tornadoes hit southern Manitoba - CBC.ca
  11. ^ Toronto Dodges Severe Weather As Storm Warning Ends
  12. ^ YouTube - Mildmay Ontario Tornado July 08 2007, www.stormchasing.ca

[edit] External links

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