Southern Ontario Tornadoes of 1996
Encyclopedia
Southern Ontario
's worst tornado
outbreak
of the decade came on Saturday April 20, 1996. Severe weather
had raked parts of the U.S. Midwest the day before, where seventeen F2 or greater tornadoes touched down (ten in Illinois alone). A cold front was being dragged eastward into unusually warm and unstable air associated with a strong storm system moving through the northern tier of the U.S. Out of the two significant tornadoes that day, both rated F3, it was remarkable that no lives were lost. Nine people escaped with minor injuries.
Many homes were severely damaged in Williamsford
, Arthur
, and Violet Hill. Many areas that experienced the tornadoes on May 31, 1985 were hit once again, especially the Grand Valley area. The first tornado that touched down tore a 40 kilometre long path southeast of Owen Sound
. A second tornado touched down farther south and took a 60 kilometre track from Arthur to just southwest of Barrie
. There was a third brief touchdown near Orillia
associated with the parent storm of the second tornado.
, likely triggered by the aging squall line further west. Then, at about 5:50pm, a funnel cloud
touched down about five kilometres southwest of Williamsford. Only sporadic tree damage took place at this point. The storm was high-based, and there was a large gap between the tornado and the core of the storm which was consistent through much of the tornado’s life. The wall cloud
was large and showed clear signs of rotation.
As the tornado passed through town, it was large and messy, and divided into multiple vortices shortly after. The collective width of the damage path was about 400 metres wide and extensive debris filled the air. At Williamsford, the storm did extensive F3 damage to a strip of homes along Chatsworth
Road 24, a township
concession road
. It then crossed Williams Lake, damaging some cottages and ripping up trees. As it crossed the small lake, it became a waterspout
for a brief time, and some of the multiple vortices became visible. The tornado continued to move northeast and, as it neared Holland Centre, the winds hurled a 10,000 litre gasoline tank (weighing approximately two tonne
s) for more than 1.6 kilometres. At this point, the tornado crossed Highway 10
.
As the tornado neared the town of Walter's Falls, it became more compact, but did not weaken. Damage was continuous but involved only trees. East of Walters Falls, the tornado became very strange in appearance as the funnel split into two separate vortices. A debris cloud persisted under both of these funnels as they rotated around each other. The tornado then rolled through the town of Blantyre where some homes suffered F2 damage. Shortly afterward the tornado began to weaken and finally lifted just before 6:30pm. The parent storm then moved out over the cold waters of Georgian Bay
near Meaford
, where it rapidly dissipated.
initially formed northwest of London
around 5:00pm and slowly moved northeast where it began to began to produce funnel clouds. The first touchdown was about eight kilometres southwest of Arthur
at 6:10pm. A small funnel cloud was visible, but there was mostly just a large mass of dust at the ground. Within the next few minutes, the tornado began to take on a tube-like form. It was a multiple-vortex tornado, with as many as four distinct vortices inside the main path. The tornado’s overall width was about 400 metres. It went quickly from F1 to F2 and widened, then became an F3 as it approached town from the southwest.
Extensive damage began on the west side of Arthur shortly thereafter. As the tornado passed Highway 6
, it was at its peak strength. The tornado had a separate companion for a brief time, a thin black appendage that swept around the front of the main circulation. As the main tornado crossed the highway, it destroyed a barn full of hay
which tinted the tornado yellow for a brief time. The tornado’s parent supercell also became more intense. A torrent of rain and hail preceded the tornado around the north side of the path.
The mesocyclone
was rather large, even pulling in some of the precipitation
from ahead of the storm. As the storm moved farther to the northeast, it nearly destroyed several farms before it plowed into the Luther Marsh, north of Grand Valley. East of the marsh, the storm weakened somewhat and the tornado narrowed in width. Upper-level winds were stretching out the storm causing a larger gap between the precipitation core and the tornado, thus making it even more visible to people in the storm's path. South of the tornado, it was warm, windy, and free of precipitation, with a spectacular view of the storm. The tornado damaged more homes and then crossed Highway 25, taking down several hydro transformers in one very bright power flash
. The tornado now had a textbook-style appearance as a narrow wedge.
F2 damage continued on as the tornado approached the town of Shelburne
in Dufferin County. Pieces of sheet metal
and wood fell from the sky and littered the southern end of town after they were thrown out of the tornado. It then damaged more homes and buildings as it ripped across the southeast end of town. The tornado stayed at around F2-F3 intensity as it moved out of Shelburne into more open country. The path was now about 125 metres wide. It then moved toward the suburban town of Violet Hill, where several more homes sustained F2-F3 damage. Not long after, the tornado began dying out as its path narrowed to 50 metres. Outflow from the core of the storm undercut the mesocyclone, and the tornado lifted by 7:00pm. This storm went on to produce another brief touchdown southwest of Orillia but all severe weather died down after sunset.
April of 1996 was unseasonably cold, so there was still snow on the ground in some areas and Lake Huron
was still covered in ice. In fact, the Grey County tornado lifted a thick sheet of ice off of a pond before depositing it nearby. Light snows also fell after the event in the areas hardest hit by the tornadoes, which hampered the clean-up efforts.
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a region of the province of Ontario, Canada that lies south of the French River and Algonquin Park. Depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts, its surface area would cover between 14 to 15% of the province. It is the southernmost region of...
's worst tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
outbreak
Tornado outbreak
While there is no single agreed upon definition, generally at least 6-10 tornadoes produced by the same synoptic scale weather system is considered a tornado outbreak. The tornadoes usually occur within the same day, or continue into the early morning hours of the succeeding day, and within the...
of the decade came on Saturday April 20, 1996. Severe weather
April 1996 Tornado Outbreak Sequence
The April 1996 Tornado Outbreak Sequence was a series of tornado outbreaks that occurred over a three-day period between April 19 to April 21, 1996 across a large area of eastern North America. It was the most notable outbreak of the year; the 19th was the most prolific tornado outbreak in Illinois...
had raked parts of the U.S. Midwest the day before, where seventeen F2 or greater tornadoes touched down (ten in Illinois alone). A cold front was being dragged eastward into unusually warm and unstable air associated with a strong storm system moving through the northern tier of the U.S. Out of the two significant tornadoes that day, both rated F3, it was remarkable that no lives were lost. Nine people escaped with minor injuries.
Many homes were severely damaged in Williamsford
Williamsford, Ontario
Williamsford is a village on the North Saugeen River in Grey County, Ontario, Canada . It has a general store, post office, a bookstore and restaurant housed in a historic grain mill. A small dam controls the North Saugeen River. It has several churches, and a community cemetery. Williamsford also...
, Arthur
Arthur, Ontario
Arthur is a community located just north of Hwy 6 and Wellington Road 109 in the township of Wellington North, Ontario, Canada. Formerly an independent village, Arthur was amalgamated into Wellington North on January 1, 1999.-History:...
, and Violet Hill. Many areas that experienced the tornadoes on May 31, 1985 were hit once again, especially the Grand Valley area. The first tornado that touched down tore a 40 kilometre long path southeast of Owen Sound
Owen Sound, Ontario
Owen Sound , the county seat of Grey County, is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada...
. A second tornado touched down farther south and took a 60 kilometre track from Arthur to just southwest of Barrie
Barrie, Ontario
Barrie is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada, located on the western shore of Lake Simcoe, approximately 90 km north of Toronto. Although located in Simcoe County, the city is politically independent...
. There was a third brief touchdown near Orillia
Orillia, Ontario
Orillia, pronounced ōrĭl'ēə, is a city located in Simcoe County in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, 135 kilometres north of Toronto.Originally incorporated as a village in 1867, the history of...
associated with the parent storm of the second tornado.
Grey County tornado
Ahead of the main cold front, a separate storm formed into a supercell southwest of Williamsford in Grey CountyGrey County, Ontario
Grey County is a county and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. The county seat is in Owen Sound. The population was 92,411 in 2006. It is located in the subregion of Southern Ontario named Southwestern Ontario...
, likely triggered by the aging squall line further west. Then, at about 5:50pm, a funnel cloud
Funnel cloud
A funnel cloud is a funnel-shaped cloud of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud but not reaching the ground or a water surface. A funnel cloud is usually visible as a cone-shaped or needle like protuberance from the main cloud...
touched down about five kilometres southwest of Williamsford. Only sporadic tree damage took place at this point. The storm was high-based, and there was a large gap between the tornado and the core of the storm which was consistent through much of the tornado’s life. The wall cloud
Wall cloud
A wall cloud is a large, lowering, and rotating base of a cumulonimbus cloud that potentially forms tornadoes. It is typically beneath the rain-free base portion of a deep cumulus cloud , and indicates the area of primary and strongest updraft which condenses into cloud at altitudes lower than...
was large and showed clear signs of rotation.
As the tornado passed through town, it was large and messy, and divided into multiple vortices shortly after. The collective width of the damage path was about 400 metres wide and extensive debris filled the air. At Williamsford, the storm did extensive F3 damage to a strip of homes along Chatsworth
Chatsworth, Ontario
Chatsworth is a township in south-western Ontario, Canada, in Grey County, located at the headwaters of the Styx River, the Saugeen River, the Sauble River, the Bighead River, the Spey River, and the Sydenham River....
Road 24, a township
Township (Canada)
The term township generally means the district or area associated with a town. However in some systems no town needs to be involved. The specific use of the term to describe political subdivisions has varied by country, usually to describe a local rural or semi-rural government within the county...
concession road
Concession road
In Upper and Lower Canada, concession roads were laid out by the colonial government through undeveloped land to define lots to be developed; the name comes from a Lower Canadian French term for a row of lots. Concession roads are straight, and follow an approximately square grid, usually oriented...
. It then crossed Williams Lake, damaging some cottages and ripping up trees. As it crossed the small lake, it became a waterspout
Waterspout
A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water. While it is often weaker than most of its land counterparts, stronger versions spawned by mesocyclones do occur...
for a brief time, and some of the multiple vortices became visible. The tornado continued to move northeast and, as it neared Holland Centre, the winds hurled a 10,000 litre gasoline tank (weighing approximately two tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s) for more than 1.6 kilometres. At this point, the tornado crossed Highway 10
Highway 10 (Ontario)
King's Highway 10, commonly referred to as Highway 10 and historically as the Toronto–Sydenham Road, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario...
.
As the tornado neared the town of Walter's Falls, it became more compact, but did not weaken. Damage was continuous but involved only trees. East of Walters Falls, the tornado became very strange in appearance as the funnel split into two separate vortices. A debris cloud persisted under both of these funnels as they rotated around each other. The tornado then rolled through the town of Blantyre where some homes suffered F2 damage. Shortly afterward the tornado began to weaken and finally lifted just before 6:30pm. The parent storm then moved out over the cold waters of Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron, located entirely within Ontario, Canada...
near Meaford
Meaford, Ontario
Meaford is a Canadian municipality in Grey County, Ontario. Meaford is located on Nottawasaga Bay, a sub-basin of Georgian Bay, in southern Ontario....
, where it rapidly dissipated.
Wellington & Dufferin County tornado
The storm in Wellington CountyWellington County, Ontario
Wellington County is a county located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat is Guelph, a city which is politically independent, but Guelph's status as the seat means it houses the county's administrative offices...
initially formed northwest of London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
around 5:00pm and slowly moved northeast where it began to began to produce funnel clouds. The first touchdown was about eight kilometres southwest of Arthur
Arthur, Ontario
Arthur is a community located just north of Hwy 6 and Wellington Road 109 in the township of Wellington North, Ontario, Canada. Formerly an independent village, Arthur was amalgamated into Wellington North on January 1, 1999.-History:...
at 6:10pm. A small funnel cloud was visible, but there was mostly just a large mass of dust at the ground. Within the next few minutes, the tornado began to take on a tube-like form. It was a multiple-vortex tornado, with as many as four distinct vortices inside the main path. The tornado’s overall width was about 400 metres. It went quickly from F1 to F2 and widened, then became an F3 as it approached town from the southwest.
Extensive damage began on the west side of Arthur shortly thereafter. As the tornado passed Highway 6
Highway 6 (Ontario)
King's Highway 6, also known as Highway 6, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It crosses a distance of between Port Dover on the north shore of Lake Erie and Espanola on the northern shore of Lake Huron, ending at the Trans-Canada Highway in McKerrow.- Port...
, it was at its peak strength. The tornado had a separate companion for a brief time, a thin black appendage that swept around the front of the main circulation. As the main tornado crossed the highway, it destroyed a barn full of hay
Hay
Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...
which tinted the tornado yellow for a brief time. The tornado’s parent supercell also became more intense. A torrent of rain and hail preceded the tornado around the north side of the path.
The mesocyclone
Mesocyclone
A mesocyclone is a vortex of air, approximately 2 to 10 miles in diameter , within a convective storm....
was rather large, even pulling in some of the precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
from ahead of the storm. As the storm moved farther to the northeast, it nearly destroyed several farms before it plowed into the Luther Marsh, north of Grand Valley. East of the marsh, the storm weakened somewhat and the tornado narrowed in width. Upper-level winds were stretching out the storm causing a larger gap between the precipitation core and the tornado, thus making it even more visible to people in the storm's path. South of the tornado, it was warm, windy, and free of precipitation, with a spectacular view of the storm. The tornado damaged more homes and then crossed Highway 25, taking down several hydro transformers in one very bright power flash
Power flash
A power flash is a flash of light caused by arcing electricity from damaged electrical equipment. They are often caused by tornadoes, and thus are used by storm spotters to spot tornadoes which would otherwise be invisible due to rain or darkness....
. The tornado now had a textbook-style appearance as a narrow wedge.
F2 damage continued on as the tornado approached the town of Shelburne
Shelburne, Ontario
Shelburne, Ontario is a town in Dufferin County, Ontario, Canada, located at the intersection of Highway 10 and Highway 89...
in Dufferin County. Pieces of sheet metal
Sheet metal
Sheet metal is simply metal formed into thin and flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety of different shapes. Countless everyday objects are constructed of the material...
and wood fell from the sky and littered the southern end of town after they were thrown out of the tornado. It then damaged more homes and buildings as it ripped across the southeast end of town. The tornado stayed at around F2-F3 intensity as it moved out of Shelburne into more open country. The path was now about 125 metres wide. It then moved toward the suburban town of Violet Hill, where several more homes sustained F2-F3 damage. Not long after, the tornado began dying out as its path narrowed to 50 metres. Outflow from the core of the storm undercut the mesocyclone, and the tornado lifted by 7:00pm. This storm went on to produce another brief touchdown southwest of Orillia but all severe weather died down after sunset.
Seasonal Rarity
Climatologists consider these Canadian tornadoes to have been quite a rare occurrence, both for the date and location as this part of Ontario is relatively high in elevation, nicknamed the Roof of Ontario. In addition, never before have such intense and long tracked tornadoes occurred this early in the season in Canada.April of 1996 was unseasonably cold, so there was still snow on the ground in some areas and Lake Huron
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...
was still covered in ice. In fact, the Grey County tornado lifted a thick sheet of ice off of a pond before depositing it nearby. Light snows also fell after the event in the areas hardest hit by the tornadoes, which hampered the clean-up efforts.