Violent Storm Spawned Eight Twisters
Posted August 10, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
On Thursday Environment Canada confirmed that eight tornadoes touched down across the province on August 2 within an hour and a half. That’s the most twisters spawned from a single storm since 13 touched down in the Barrie area in 1985.
The eight twisters passed through a region as far north as Haliburton and as far east as Bracebridge.
Two of the tornadoes were categorized as F2 storms on the five-level Fujita scale of twister intensity. An F2 carries winds of between 180 and 240 kilometres an hour.
One of the two touched down in Combermere, south of Barry’s Bay, near Algonquin Park. The other hit Bancroft.
Four other twisters were rated as F1s and two were F0s – the weakest ranking.
There has never been an F5 tornado in Canada.
Ontario experiences, on average, about 14 twisters a year that usually touch down in the corridor between Sarnia and Lake Simcoe.
The twisters that hit just over a week ago cut power to some 170,000 Hydro One customers and most have since had their electricity restored, but some small areas are still in the dark.
And many people are still trying to pick up the pieces of their homes and cottages. The damage caused by the storm will cost millions of dollars to clean up.
Gravenhurst resident Mary Merton said a downed tree created a leak in her condo, which had to be gutted because of mildew.
“We’re glad that nobody was hurt,” she said. “I’m glad I’m alive, that’s for sure.”
