The two thunderstorms that hit many parts of Wellington County on June 8 and 9 were severe, but not abnormal weather, according to Environment Canada.
There were actually three storms that swept parts of the province, with two of them landing in the county according to Environment Canada Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Peter Kimbell.
He said in an interview on June 10, “Thunderstorms are normal in Southern Ontario” this time of year, and that a couple of storms hitting one area in quick succession “is not unheard of.”
Kimbell said the one that started late June 7 (Tuesday night) and ran into early Wednesday morning came from Lake Huron to the Bruce Peninsula, and headed southeast by around 2am. He noted it carried a “spectacular light show” and caused a lot of damage.
The second storm landed later and swept past Wellington
County into the Muskokas and towards Peterborough. It, too, was a straight-line storm.
Kimbell said Environment
Canada did investigate if tordos had hit during that storm, but found no evidence of it.
The third storm also hit Wellington County – and landed again in the Peterborough area, as well as Scarborough. That one moved right across Southern Ontario, he said.
When asked if such activity is “normal,” Kimbell said, “It’s not normal – but it has happened before.”
He said that the storms presented “straight line wind damage, and there was “no evidence of tornado damage anywhere.
Kimbell said that Southern Ontario averages a dozen tornados a year, but, to date, there has been only one that is recog
nized by Environment Canada.
That happened on April 27 and, ironically, it happened in Fergus. That one caused some minor damage to a store.
“We believe that is the only one,” he said.
Around Ontario
There was plenty of damage from the storms across the province according to Hydro One, which had 70,000 customers out of power for varying periods of time.
Spokesman Danielle Gauvin said in an interview on Friday that crews worked hard last week to restore that power.
She said that winds ranging from 80 to 100km/hour knocked down many trees and took out hydro lines. She said the storm on Wednesday evening was “especially destructive.”
Bancroft had outages in 12,000 homes. In Brockville it was 5,000. There were 700 homes out of service in Dundas, and Fenelon Falls had 6,800.
Guelph and Wellington County had 1,300 homes without power. Kincardine and Minden each had 3,400 out.
Peterborough was also hard hit, with 16,000 people without power. Tweed had another 13,000 without electricity.
Walkerton had only 1,200 power outages, but the damage there was severe, Gauvin said. In most places falling trees knocked down hydro lines, but in that area, 100 hydro poles were snapped off due to the storm.
She said most power was restored within the first day, but there were still some places with power outages on Friday morning.
Gauvin concluded, “It seems to be a really bad spring. The whole North American grid is finding severe storms.”
