70 per cent of Canadian tornadoes arrived with no tornado warning: report
The aftermath of a tornado can be devastating, which is why a recent report by the Northern Tornadoes Project that showed most of Canada’s twisters arrived with no tornado warning is raising eyebrows.
“The results were not exactly impressive,” said Dr. David Sills, executive director with Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project.
A study of the last three years of Canadian tornado data by the Northern Tornadoes Project shows that only 12 per cent of tornadoes in Canada were preceded by a tornado warning from Environment Canada — and over 70 per cent struck with no tornado warning at all.
Broken down by year, of 64 tornadoes in 2019, 49 had no tornado warning. In 2020, 53 of 76 twisters had no warning, and last year, 61 of 81 tornadoes arrived with no tornado warning.
Since 2019, 163 of 221 tornadoes occurred with no tornado warning issued by Environment Canada.
“You don’t want to excite too many people that there’s a tornado about to hit their house, but the only way to make sure you don’t miss big events is to get those tornado warnings out there,” said Sills, who used to work for Environment Canada before joining the Northern Tornadoes Project.
Sills said Environment Canada has goals to provide 10 minutes lead time of a tornado 60 per cent of the time. The report suggests they haven’t met that standard very much over the past three years, which government forecasters said just proves how hard it is to forecast tornadoes.
“It is difficult, especially in Canada where the majority of our tornadoes are F0 or F1, so it can be very short lived and have a very small track,” said Environment Canada’s Director of Prediction Services, Joanne St. Coeur.
But, they are working on improving radar capabilities and how they inform the public of a big storm’s arrival, according to St. Coeur.
“I think there is some example in the States of using a polygon to identify the track of the storm or direction of the tornado. I think these are instruments we hope to see in our own Canadian system over the next few years,” she said.
“Just having this wake up call, I think is a step forward for realizing there is a problem and that we can do things to improve upon it,” said Sills.
You can read the Northern Tornadoes Project Tornado Warnings Report here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
At least 4 buildings burned at Jasper Park Lodge, others damaged: Fairmont memo
The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge said Thursday afternoon most of its structures are "standing and intact," including its iconic main lodge.
Major Canadian bank dealing with direct deposit outage on pay day
Scotiabank has acknowledged technical difficulties affecting direct deposits as clients report missed payments Friday morning. On Friday morning, the bank's client services phone line was playing an automated message assuring customers that work was underway to rectify the outage.
Elon Musk's estranged daughter calls out his 'entirely fake' claims about her childhood
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk's estranged daughter, publicly refuted several recent anti-trans statements her Tesla CEO and X owner father has made about her.
Reported rate of child pornography increased 52% in 2023, total crime up 3%: Statistics Canada
Last year, reported child pornography cases increased by more than 50 per cent in Canada, in part due to more cases being sent to police by specialized internet child exploitation units, according to a Statistics Canada report.
Sask. appeal court says anti-trans group cannot join constitutional dispute over pronoun law
Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal has denied a political group that opposes so-called “gender ideology” intervener status in a legal dispute over the province’s controversial pronoun law.
Justin Timberlake's attorney disputes he was intoxicated when arrested for DWI
A hearing in the case of Justin Timberlake being accused of driving while intoxicated was held Friday, where an attorney for the singer disputed his arrest in June.
What we know about 'malicious' attack on French train network ahead of Olympics opening
French transport was thrust into chaos Friday just hours ahead of the Olympics 2024 opening ceremony after a series of co-ordinated 'malicious acts' upended high-speed train lines.Here's what happened and what we know so far.
When Barbie learned what a gynecologist was, so did many other people, according to new study
A new study published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open has found that the ending in the 2023 blockbuster film 'Barbie' had an influence on online search interest in terms around gynecology, the branch of medicine that deals with women’s reproductive health.
Canada Soccer head investigating 'systemic ethical shortcoming' amid spying scandal
Canada Soccer chief executive officer Kevin Blue said he was investigating a potential 'systemic ethical shortcoming' within the program but has not considered pulling the women's soccer team from the Paris Olympics due to a drone spying scandal.