Funnel cloud south of Tilbury. July 29, 2018. Photo courtesy of Vicki Chalmers).
There was a lot of wind and water in portions of southwestern Ontario Sunday.
A system of heavy rain and high winds moved through the region which included the suspected appearance of several tornadoes, according to photos and videos posted by BlackburnNews.com listeners on their social media pages.
Forecasters at Environment Canada had been tracking a line of storms moving across the area from Michigan since Sunday morning. These storms were capable of bringing heavy downpours, high winds and damaging hail.
The weather agency had issued late Sunday morning a severe thunderstorm watch for Chatham-Kent, London-Middlesex and Elgin County, as conditions for the development of wild weather worsened.
BlackburnNews.com listeners began to see suspected funnel clouds off Hwy 401 near Tilbury around 11:30am. Another one was seen near Ridgetown, and another near Merlin around the same time. This prompted Environment Canada to issue a tornado warning for Chatham-Kent and Elgin County.
"An eyewitness reported a funnel cloud four to five kilometres south of the 401 in the Chatham area close to the 401 and Victoria Rd. area," the warning said. "It was associated with a thunderstorm moving northeastward toward West Lorne."
The tornado warnings were ended shortly after 1pm but the weather event was not over. Severe thunderstorm warnings were soon issued for C-K, along with Elgin County and London-Middlesex.
The severe thunderstorm warnings ended before 4pm and storm watches for Elgin and C-K were allowed to expire a short time after that.
A severe thunderstorm watch remained in effect for London Middlesex until just before 6pm Sunday. As of that time, there were no confirmed reports of tornado touchdowns or damage. No injuries have been reported.
A check of area utility providers showed that there were no significant power outages.
Funnel cloud spotted near Hwy. 401 close to Tilbury. July 29, 2018. (Photo courtesy of Marylou Augustyniak-Misener).
The following video was taken on Lake Erie near Clearville by Ridgetown resident Kevin Galbraith:
The following videos were taken by Ridgetown resident Jen Fraser-Kresan just outside of Ridgetown Sunday afternoon:
---with files from Sarah Cowan---