Rare weather event brings high winds, toppling trees and hydro wires

Cleanup is underway around the city after a storm blew through the region on Tuesday afternoon.

The areas in London hit hardest were north east London and Old North.

"This was a pretty unique situation yesterday – first time I’ve seen this in the weather biz,” said Dr. David Sills, executive director Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University. "When you get these big lines of thunderstorms that stretch hundreds of kilometres, you can get what's called a ‘wake low’ in behind it. It’s a low pressure system that the storm builds in behind it- that low pressure system actually drifted over southwestern Ontario and caused really strong wind.”

According to Sills, London Airport recorded a wind gust of nearly 110 km/h, and that’s actually the third highest gust recorded in June, in London. 

City of London Forestry told CTV News there were about 80 calls for service of downed or damaged trees.

A spokesperson said the calls have all been triaged and crews are working to get everything cleared.