Environment Canada has confirmed not one, but two tornadoes tore through the London-area Wednesday night, snapping trees and hydro poles and damaging buildings.
According to the national weather agency, the first twister appeared in Newbury around 7:50 p.m.
"There was a video sent in and a report of dozens of trees down and a snowmobile tossed across a yard," said Environment Canada Meteorologist Yoseph Mengesha.
About five minutes later what is believed to be the same tornado was spotted in Glencoe.
Reports of a second tornado began to come in from the Belmont-area around 8:30 p.m. Images documenting the damage in that area showed snapped hydro poles, downed tree limbs, and damage to buildings.
No injuries have been reported.
Despite the widespread damage, Mengesha said the pair of tornadoes are believed to have been on the lower end of the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale.
"They were not very strong from what I can tell. It could be an EF0 or at most an EF1. That is very low on the scale," said Mengesha. "Usually we send a damage survey team to investigate, but because of COVID-19, our capacity is limited... Our partners at Western University might send one or two investigators."
Failing that, Environment Canada will use submitted photos and video and Doppler radar to investigate the extent of the weather event.
"From the information we received and from the radar, we conclude that were was two. Later on Thursday, as we get more information, we might just update the number of tornadoes," added Mengesha.
The tornadoes appeared as a line of severe thunderstorms moved across southwestern Ontario bringing intense lightning, hail, torrential downpours, and wind gusts up to 120 km/h. The system pushed out hot, humid air that had the region under a heat warning for the past two days.
The forecast for Thursday is a much calmer and cooler one with a mix of sun and cloud and a daytime high of 22 C. The average seasonal daytime temperature for this time of year is 23.3C.
Had the pleasure of seeing this fun stuff outside of Glencoe? @weathernetwork #onstorm pic.twitter.com/M9Mb57EPRU
— ѕуd (@sydniehilll) June 11, 2020
