Ratings only given to confirmed tornados
F? = easily confirmed via photos/video, no E.C. confirmation.
Ratings only given to confirmed tornados
F? = easily confirmed via photos/video, no E.C. confirmation.
|
DATE, |
LOCATION | Rating |
INFO |
| Aug.28 | Thanet Lake | Near Coe Hill. Funnel cloud witnessed. DAMAGE PHOTOS HERE. | |
| Aug.26, 18:00-19:00 | Wolfe Lake | Over 100 trees were blown over, at least eight cottages had trees across the roofs and others had outbuildings damaged. One cottage had most windows blown out and it was blown off of it's foundation and likely will have to be completely demolished and rebuilt. One other huge cottage had at least 4 trees on the roof and suffered major damage. A number of boats and docks were blown onto the shore and destroyed. A 19 foot inboard/outboard boat was blown off of it's lift and flipped upside down into the water and the lift was blown upside down into the lake. (thanks to Peter C. for the description) | |
| Aug.21, 20:45 | Orr Lake | North west of Barrie on hwy.93 in Simcoe County. Roof of house ripped off, large trees snapped mid-trunk. | |
| Aug.07, ? | Chatham-Kent | F? | Shown on "CFPL-TV" - said to be on ground for about 5 minutes. No more information given. |
| Florence | F? | Shown by Ch.10 in London, PHOTO ON THIS PAGE | |
| Aug.02, 18:13 | Rice Lake | F? | Serpent Mounds Park, Rice Lake (near Peterborough) PHOTO ON THIS PAGE |
| Jul.11, 10:30 | Elmvale | F0 | Supercell with hook echo / meso that crossed the St. Lawrence near Morrisburg (w. of Cornwall) Unknown damage. |
| Bracebridge | F0 | Tree damage and minor building damage in and near to Santa's Village | |
| Vasey | F0 | Tree damage | |
| Jul.4 | Red Lake |
(located NW of Dryden in north western Ontario) Dave Sills of EC writes ..."The MNR is mapping
out damage from what appears to be a tornado. A long swath of
conifers several hundred metres wide levelled, and a photo of
a funnel cloud to boot! I'll be writing up that report as well
and should have something on that soon."
|
|
| Goose Lake | F? | About 200km north of Kenora, NE of Red Lake. Damage photos and description here: http://www.flyinoutposts.com/Twister/ | |
| Jun.29, 17:00 | Rockford | F0 | (south of Owen Sound) House damaged - corner of house missing, can see inside the house from the outside, tree lodged into another wall, trees uprooted. Confirmed by Environment Canada. |
| Jun.29, 17:50 | Plevna | F? | Hydro lines down, trees down, damage to cottage. IMAGES AND VIDEO OF THE TORNADO HERE |
|
Jun.29 |
Dunwich | (in Essex County) | |
| Jun.29 | Belle River | mainly yard/tree/hydro damage | |
| May 1 | Tecumseh | F1 | Tornado struck early in the morning, downing trees and power lines, damaging houses and destroying a few horse barns. |
Thunderstorms by Month
Before only a colour was used to designate a severe
thunderstorm warning, but many times a warning was issued accompanied
by only a weak storm. So in previous years I've kept records it
was hard to tell if the storm was in fact severe just by looking at
the table. This year an "X" will be placed into the box if a
warning was issued by Environment Canada but no severe t-storm or
tornado actually occurred. Warnings are defined as "imminent or
already occurring" and I wish in the future E.C. would abide by this.
Imminent of course meaning, it *IS* going to happen. Not a
chance it's going to. That's what watches are for.
| - "Garden Variety" Thunderstorm | - Severe Thunderstorm Warning *and* Svr Tstorm | - Tornado Warning Issued, Tornado occurred | |||
| - Severe Thunderstorm Watch Issued | x | - Severe Thunderstorm Warning with no Svr Tstorm | x | - Tornado Warning but no tornado | |
|
# |
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 8 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | x | |||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||||
|
1 |
EC'S BLUNDERS OF 2003 (Unlisted in above table) :
JULY 24th - Severe thunderstorm warning issued, NOT A
DROP OF RAIN AND SUNNY IN MOST OF THE CITY!! (St. Kitts was
specifically mentioned inthe warning)
JULY 31st - Severe thunderstorm warning issued for northern
Niagara/St. Catharines - there wasn't even a storm.
AUGUST 10th - Severe thunderstorm warning issued for northern NIagara/St.
Catharines - no storms at all, radar shows clear over all northern
Niagara.
AUGUST 21st - HUGE storm - strongest of the year, Niagara not under a
watch. Niagara issued warning after storms were already in the US.
| Date | Time |
Tops (Feet) |
Description |
| Apr.04 | 00:05 | 30,000 | -2C and raining that frozen "Ice pellet" stuff. Bright lightning flashes with booming thunder. |
| May.01 | 01:00 | 25,000 | Weak. |
| 05:45 | 30,000 | Weak. | |
| 08:15 |
? |
Severe thunderstorm warning issued, unfortunately it was a fairly weak storm like the others this day. | |
| May.05 | 23:00 | 30,000 | Weak storm, light rain. |
| May.11 | 08:00 | 35,000 | Weak. |
| May.27 | 11:00 | 25,000 | Weak. |
| 14:30 | 20,000 | Weak. Light thunder, no visible lightning, light rain. | |
| May.29 | 15:45 | 30,000 | Temps went from about 27C to 14C in 30 minutes. Moderate storm with localized areas of rotation. Moderate rain/winds, continuous thunder, moderate visible lightning. |
| Jun.04 | 15:45 | 30,000 | It rained pretty good for awhile, and had some nice loud low-rumbling thunder that was shaking the windows. Not much visible lightning, light winds. |
| Jun.08 | 10:00 | 35,000 | Severe t-storm watch issued but I missed most of it. From the parts I saw it was moderate in strength. |
| Jun.29 | 10:30 | 30,000 | Some loud thunder but relatively weak otherwise. |
| Jul.05 | 18:00 | 35,000 | Very low and dark cloud base with shear. Light thunder/lightning, moderate to strong rain. Most of the heavy activity passed to the north. |
| Jul.07 | 05:35 | 30,000 | Weak storm but provided much-needed rain. Light thunder/lightning/winds. |
| Jul.15 | 07:30 | 35,000 | Niagara was under a severe thunderstorm watch, but there wasn't much thunder or lightning, but the winds and rain were VERY strong. Funnel cloud shown on the news in Niagara Falls. |
| Jul.24 | 19:15 | 30,000 | Light rain, no wind, weak thunder/lightning. |
| Jul.27 | 07:30 | 30,000 | Light rain, wind, weak thunder/lightning. Short lived. |
| Aug.05 | 14:20 | 30,000 | Weak storm, short lived. |
| Aug.06 | 17:30 | 25,000 | Weak storm, short lived. |
| Aug.16 | 09:00 | 25,000 | Weak storm, short lived. |
| Aug.21 | 10:45 | 50,000 | HUGE storm system with NON-STOP lightning. Only moderate winds but very hard rain. Click link for photos and info! |
| Aug.26 | 05:30 | 35,000 | Nice lightning, weak thunder. Moderate rain, light winds. |
| Sep.15 | 22:30 | 20,000 | A bit of lightning/thunder, light/no wind, light rain. |
| Nov.12 | 18:30 | 35,000 | Very heavy downpours, moderate (but sometimes close!) lightning/thunder. No wind. |
| 20:00 | 30,000 | Strong downpours, light thunder/lightning, moderate winds. |
SIGNIFICANT ONTARIO STORMS OF 2003
Of course, this is only a small fraction of the activity that occurred this year, since severe weather occurs all over the province in the spring/summer/fall months, but the links below give info/photos on some of the severe events. Click images on left for more info/pictures.
 |
JUNE 29TH - Grindstone Lake Tornado (contains photos and video) |
 |
JULY
4TH - Snapped utility poles lie where they fell across
vehicles on Wonderland Road South between Commissioners Road West and
Viscount Road after a severe storm hit the city yesterday afternoon. --
Sue Reeve, LFP. Also check out the link this day for damage shots
of the Goose Lake tornado!
Click picture for full story by the
London Free Press
|
 |
JULY 5TH - Strong thunderstorm passes just to the north. (St. Catharines, ON) |
 |
AUGUST 2ND - Serpent Mounds Park on Rice Lake tornado (near Peterborough, ON) (thanks to William Snelling) |
 |
AUGUST 7TH - Landspout tornado in Florence, ON |
 |
AUGUST 10TH - Funnel clouds near Pickering, ON (photos by Randy Colburn) |
 |
AUGUST 21ST - HUGE lightning storm passes over southern and central Ontario. |