Environment Canada has confirmed that a tornado touched down in Grand Bend Sunday evening as a series of severe thunderstorms swept across southern Ontario.
“Between 6 and 7 pm edt Sunday evening a strong thunderstorm moved over the area a few kilometres to the south of Grand Bend,” Environment Canada said in a news release Monday evening. “An Environment Canada storm investigation team has confirmed that the thunderstorm generated an Enhanced Fujita Scale One (EF1) tornado with peak winds between 155 and 175 kilometres per hour.”
The weather agency said uprooted trees and other damage were consistent with a tornado and one woman in the area was also seriously injured when a tree fell on her as a result of the tornado.
The track of the damage was 500 metres at its widest and the length of the damage was estimated at five kilometres, Environment Canada said.
The tornado is Ontario’s eighth confirmed tornado of the season, with 12 being the average.
While the official confirmation only came Monday evening, some residents in the area spent much of Monday trying to sift through the damage.
Pictures and video from the area showed trees fallen on homes and cars, while some 4,000 hydro customers were still without power following the storm Monday morning.
“These folks talked about a wall of wind and rain hitting them at the same time and that’s what caused the trees to snap off and the power poles to come down,” Environment Canada Meteorologist Geoff Coulson told CP24 Monday morning.
Some flooding reported in the GTA
Within the GTA, Environment Canada said as much as much as 84 millimetres of rain fell in some areas.
“The rainfall amounts show a lot of variability across the GTA in terms of who got the most rain,” Coulson said.
High rainfall amounts were reported at Buttonville Airport, where Environment Canada said 84 millimetres of rain fell, and at the G Ross Lord in North york, where 75 millimetres of rain fell.
Flooding was reported Sunday night at some highway ramps in the north end of the city.
Pictures also showed flooding at the Mayfair Tennis club in Markham and at some businesses and parking lots near Woodbine and Steeles avenues.
Toronto Fire services also said it had received multiple calls about flooded basements.
With more rain set to trickle across the GTA Monday, the Toronto Area Conservation Authority issued a warning for people to take extra care around waterways.
“As a result of the precipitation some low-lying areas may experience minor flooding,” The TRCA said in a statement Monday. “Areas adjacent to watercourses, especially near culverts, bridges and dams may become dangerous because of the higher flows and should be avoided. Please alert any children under your care of these dangers and avoid areas with high flows.”
Wet weather may not be over
While the GTA appears to have been spared major flooding, CP24 Meteorologist Bill Coulter said people may not be able to put away their umbrellas just yet.
“For late afternoon, evening and overnight we’ll get into a nice clear patch,” Coulter said. “Tomorrow, though, with the instability we get a return to some showers, especially mid-afternoon through to the evening, maybe even an isolated thunderstorm. Wednesday it’s still going to remain cool with some midday showers.”
The wet weather comes as Torontonians are seeing cooler temperatures 5than they’re accustomed to for this point in the summer.
“Normal temperatures for this time of year should be 27 degrees Celsius and we’re going to be struggling with daytime highs over the next few days of only 19 or 20,” Coulson said.
He added that July overall has been cooler than expected.
“In general the big thing we’ve been missing out on this summer is the heat waves,” Coulson said. “Being able to string together three, four, five days in a row with temperatures getting to 30 plus degrees Celsius with the humidex making it feel like 40 plus. Really not too many days (so far) that have even approached those sort of values.
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