Northern Tornadoes Project investigating East London for possible Tornado
Cleanup is still underway from Saturday’s massive storm that hit Southwestern Ontario, and not everyone in the region has their power restored.
While both London Hydro crews and the City of London, Ont. Forestry department work to clear streets and store power, the Western University Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) is investigating data from the Derecho which blew through the area.
“A Derecho is a widespread, long-lived, fast-moving windstorm, and this one actually snuck up on us a bit,” says Dave Sills, the executive director of the NTP.
“I was all over the computer models the day before because we were thinking there might be a possibility of a tornado in Eastern Ontario into Quebec. There was nothing about the Derecho coming. It basically started in Chicago, blew through Windsor, blew through London, and all the way to Quebec City.”
The NTP sent teams to Uxbridge and Ottawa because the damage was so intense there compared to the rest of the province. They were expecting probable tornadoes embedded in the leading edge of the Derecho in those cases.
A massive tree took out a fence and ripped up a backyard deck at a home on Mark St. in the east end of London, Ont. near Huron St. residents asses the damage on Sunday, May 22, 2022. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
Sills knew there was some damage, so he went out Sunday to investigate.
“What I found was mostly consistent with just the straight-line winds with trees down, and some building damage,” says Sills.
“The one area that has a possibility of being a tornado is along Huron and east of Highbury, but I still have to look at the data. It was basically, as a long narrow path of enhanced damage.”
Sills has just started mapping the data he’s collected and isn’t sure exactly how wide or long the path of destruction was in that area.
“It seems like it's about five kilometres long, less than a kilometre wide, but I think it's even narrower than that,” he says.
“You're starting to get into an embedded tornado kind of category. I also am looking at radar right now to see if there was any rotation associated with the storm as it came through. So we kind of put together all these different clues, especially with these more complicated events to see if everything fits together.”
While making his rounds after the storm, Sills discovered a lot of the trees in the forested areas of the city and the older parts of the city are not the healthiest. In the Old East Village area, he says a number of trees were rotted and just came apart. However, in the Huron St. area, most of them looked like healthy trees that were just snapped.
London Hydro crews work to restore power on Huron St. just east of Highbury Ave in London, Ont. on Sunday May 22, 2022. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
He is hoping to analyze his data soon, but he’s been very busy with interview requests from the Ottawa-area, and even international media.
“The New York Times wanted an interview today, so this is making news internationally, especially with the number of fatalities,” says Sills.
While the cleanup from the great storm continues, Sills doesn’t expect to see another one of these events in the near future.
“Thankfully they are fairly rare in Canada,” says Sills.
“In the US they get them every couple of years, but in Canada, it’s more like every five or 10 years. The last really memorable one for us is back in the 1990s so it's been a while since people have heard the term Derecho and it's and I guess that's a good thing.”
As of noon Monday, London Hydro was reporting 24 outages remaining across the City of London.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
How quietly promised law changes in the 2024 federal budget could impact your day-to-day life
The 2024 federal budget released last week includes numerous big spending promises that have garnered headlines. But, tucked into the 416-page document are also series of smaller items, such as promising to amend the law regarding infant formula and to force banks to label government rebates, that you may have missed.
Which foods have the most plastics? You may be surprised
'How much plastic will you have for dinner, sir? And you, ma'am?' While that may seem like a line from a satirical skit on Saturday Night Live, research is showing it's much too close to reality.
opinion I've been a criminal attorney for decades. Here's what I think about the case against Trump
Joey Jackson, a criminal defence attorney and a legal analyst for CNN, outlines what he thinks about the criminal case against Donald Trump in the 'hush money trial.'
$3.8M home in B.C.'s Okanagan has steel shell for extra wildfire protection
A home in B.C.'s Okanagan that features a weathering steel shell designed to provide some protection against wildfires has been listed for sale at $3.8 million.
Diver pinned under water by an alligator figured he had choice. Lose his arm or lose his life
An alligator attacked a diver on April 15 as he surfaced from his dive, nearly out of air. His tank emptied with the gator's jaws crushing the arm he put up in defence.
Psychologist becomes first person in Peru to die by euthanasia after fighting in court for years
A Peruvian psychologist who suffered from an incurable disease that weakened her muscles and had her confined to her bed for several years, died by euthanasia, her lawyer said Monday, becoming the first person in the country to obtain the right to die with medical assistance.
Mystery surrounds giant custom Canucks jerseys worn by Lions Gate Bridge statues
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
Celebrity designer sentenced to 18 months in prison for smuggling crocodile handbags
A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the 'Sex and the City' TV series was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.
Wildfire leads to evacuation order issued for northeast Alberta community
An evacuation order was issued on Monday afternoon for homes in the area of Cold Lake First Nation.