1998 Storm & Torando summary

March/April/May 1998 Storms (5 entries) June/July 1998 Storms (6 entries) August 1998 Storms (4 entries) September 1998 Storms + Earthquake (2 entries) November 1998 Storm (1 entry)

Chase Page

The second killer storm occured May 31st which killed one person on the Severn River.  Unlike the States where the majority of their severe weather occurs in the spring, our most active months were June and July.  Our 3rd killer storm occurred June 25th/26th when 2 people were killed by lightning.  The 4th killer storm was June 29th which killed 1, and the last was July 29th where high winds killed 2 people in a trailer park, again.. in Bobcaygeon.  Reported tornados were spread out, with the 1st ones coming on June 2nd, in Norwich, Elmvale, and possibly Simcoe county and Orillia area.  The last reported tornado occured Sept. 6th, beginning in NOTL and tracking up the Niagara Escarpment towards Niagara Falls.  (this tornado was 'confirmed' by Niagara Regional Police yet is unconfirmed by EC)
    The season was a little less active than the yearly averages.  St. Catharines saw 24 thunderstorms (average=30) and southern Ontario had only 16 tornados, and of them, I only know of only 2 that were confirmed by Environment Canada.  According to EC Ontario's yearly average is 30 tornados for Southern Ontario (Canada's average is around 80), so to go from 30 to 2 is pretty wacky...  Have they really been confirming an average of 30 each year in the past?
    This was the 1st season in which I went out actively and chased.. I learnt a lot, and no matter how much you read and how much you're told, most of your know-how comes through experience.  I've learnt -not- to chase severe storms at night (regular thunderstorms.. fine, but no more severe storms).  I've become a little better with storm photography... I've learnt to take LOTS of film when chasing... and I've found a few more good places to scope out storms.  Some of the better photographs from my 1998 adventures are here:

click on image to enlarge:

1998 weather... (this is local to my area and is by no means official, the number of t-storms and severe t-storms for all of Ontario is obviously much higher.  The number of thunderstorms is for St. Catharines that I have personnaly witnessed, as well as severe t-storms.  # of tornados and storm deaths is for all of southern Ontario)

# of tornados may not be exactly what Environment Canada has in their stats - but when you watch the news and 3 people are interviewed and each say they saw a funnel on the ground with localized rotation...  it doesn't take an expert to recognize a tornado, and I'm sure 99% of the average Joes out there would know a circulating cloud on the ground is not a microburst).
So, to make a long story short, if I see a news segment where a bunch of people state they say a tornado on the ground, I'm going to take that as confirmed tornado.

Thunderstorms: 24 (includes severe storms listed below, and is ONLY the # of t-storms I've seen personally)
Severe storms: 14(Mar. 28, May 19, May 31, Jun. 2, Jun. 25, Jun. 26, Jun. 29, Jul. 29, Aug. 23, Aug. 24 (3), Aug. 25, Aug.29, Sep.6)
Unofficial Killer storms[deaths]: 5anada storm deaths: 10 (4 by wind, 6 by lightning)
Storm deaths: 7
Tornados: 15

Date     Location                                        F-Rating  Info
Mar28  Orangeville                 ?
May31  Holland Marsh               ?    Winds ripped apart seedlings at a farm
Jun02  Allenwood Beach to Elmvale  F2   Grain elevator and grain wagons destroyed
       Norwich                     F2   Church destroyed, parts of houses levelled (4:27pm)
       Norwich                     F1   (4:27pm)
       Dunnville to Crystal Beach  ?    (4:53pm)
       Simcoe (Haldimand-Norfolk)  ?    (6:00pm
Jun26  Arthur                      F0-1 Caught on camera by chaser David Patrick
Jun29  Inwood                      ?
       Jerseyville                 ?
       Guelph                      ?    Apparently hit parts of the city's south end
Aug23  Massey to Sault St. Marie   ?
Aug29  Espanola                    ?
       Mattawa                     ?
Sep06  Pinery Provincial Park      ?    Reported park staff, TVS on doppler
              Niagara-on-the-Lake         ?    Caught on camera by me as we did a night chase.