LONDON, ONT -- A line of severe storms produced at least four tornadoes in southwestern Ontario on Sunday, including one near Stratford.
Belmont, Ont. which is southeast of London, may soon get a reputation for tornadoes after it was confirmed that they saw an EF0 tornado over the weekend.
Belmont also saw a tornado on June 10, when a barn was severely damaged in a series of storms.
The confirmation of Sunday’s tornadoes was made by the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) out of Western University in London.
Also late Monday, a second tornado was confirmed near Lucan, Ont., to the northwest of London.
The tornado, which has been ranked as an EF1, caused significant damage to grain bins and an elevator at a farm.
“We collect information and we determine the path length and the path width. We also look at things like where the debris was blown, so maybe debris was blown east in one way then north in another,” said Aaron Jaffe, research engineer for NTP, in an interview with CTV News on Monday.
The twister had a length of 2.4 kilometres and max winds of 135 km/h. The team also found evidence of a larger EF0 downburst.
On Tuesday, NTP also confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in Beachville, near Woodstock, travelling 2.8 kilometres with a 100 metre width and maximum winds of 150 km/h. Later Tuesday night they concluded that a fourth tornado hit just north of Stratford near Gads Hill.
That twister was also an EF1 travelling 4.2 kilometres, had a max width of 400 metres and max wind speeds of 150 km/h.
A waterspout on Lake Huron off Bright's Grove, just east of Sarnia, was also confirmed. With no damage it was rated an EF0 by default, but NTP's Dave Sills added in a tweet that tornadoes over water are being counted only on an 'experimental basis.'
In that area, a dairy farm in Lambton Shores had its roof torn off by the force of the storms.
The teams were also expected to visit the Exeter and Tavistock areas for more damage investigations on Tuesday.
Reports of damage and possible tornadoes flooded in following Sunday’s destructive storms, including in Blyth Ont, where one resident reported their drive shed was picked up and tossed 50 metres into a field.
Evidence of downbursts have also been found throughout the region while the team investigates the tornadoes.
The team from NTP will once again be surveying damage on Wednesday this time in Thedford area.
A tornado has also been confirmed to have hit the Brantford area during storms from July 16. That tornado was determined to be an EF0 due to the limited damage produced.
