| Latest
News: August 2nd 2006 - Squalls and meso's |
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| A supercell
chase and squall line! |
|
| March
13th 2006 - Supercellular bust! |
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| What started
out as a possibly memorable day quickly became nothing more than a drive through the
country when conditions which were primed, failed to produce more than some rain showers
in the Listowel area. A weak line of storms which formed in Michigan quickly began to show
some good rotation and other characteristics but just as soon as it had the started the
storms quickly faded into thin air as they attempted to cross the cold waters of Lake
Huron. Such storm conditions are usually not present in Ontario until late April or early
May which has many wondering just what the 2006 storm season will bring? |
| SPACE |
| August
19th 2005 - Supercell spawns tornadoes in Fergus and floods the GTA |
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Above: Only
the hardiest vehicle are able to traverse an overflowing creek covering portions of Martin
Grove road just north of highway 7 in Woodbridge, Ontario.
Ontario residents from Stratford through Fergus and into Toronto were effected by
an intense supercell thunderstorm which produced large hail, high winds and flooding
rains. Two tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Fergus Ontario creating an
immense swath of damage while flooding rains were the main problem in the GTA where some
places saw a radar estimated 220mm (8.5 inches) of rain in less than an hour. |
| SPACE |
| June
5th Severe Squall Line - Goderich Ontario |
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Above: Outflow
winds from the squall line stir up dust in Goderich. The day was primed for prefrontal
storms until the cap built in and the sun set leaving only a large squall line. The line
which was racing across lake Huron at 110km/h pummeled many coastal areas knocking down
trees.
Click here for
a video. |
| SPACE |
| May
10th Bust! - Capped |
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| Spotty
rainshowers and a rainbow dot the horizon near Tavistock as Patrick Cool and Tom Stefanac
attempt to find a thunderstorm. Thus far the 2005 storm season has yet to reveal any
severe weather. |
|
| Latest
News: April 19th Bust! - Hot Hotter Hottest |
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| Storm
Chaser's, Dave Raynor, Tom Stefanac and Mark Rozitis parked from left to right, sit and
and discuss the days lack of storms at a rest storm near hwy's 88 and the 400. While there
were no storms, record braking temperatures were experiences in much of Southern Ontario
as the mecury soared into the high twenties. April 19th is now officially the hottest day
of 2005 thus far. |
| Latest
News: June 1st Funnel Cloud and Low Topped Storms |
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The day started off with bright
sunshine and warm winds out of the southwest as an approaching upper level cold low made
its way into the province. Temperatures quickly jumped into the mid 20's well above the
forecasted highs. The increased heat energy produced capes in excess of 1500 j/kg and
extremely unstable mid level lapse rates. Shortly after midday the storms formed along
lake breeze boundaries and interacted with the surrounding conditions to produce small
hail, lightning and funnel clouds. One of the numerous funnel clouds was spotted over
Musselsmans Lake near Stouffville. |
| The storms also produced flash food
conditions in many regions and coated the same areas with hail ranging from 1 to 3
centimeters in size. The storm responsible for the funnel cloud shown above also produced
a wall cloud just north of Oshawa as it drifted southeast. While the storms were not
intense by any means they did produce more active weather than anticipated despite. Many
of the storms were no more than 25,000 feet tall with the highest tops just barely
approaching 30,000ft. |
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| May
two-four weekend supercell fest - 05/25/04 |
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coming SOON |
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| Round
3: Morning Fun - 05/24/04 |
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coming SOON |
coming SOON |
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|
| Round
2: Big chase to the Southwest - 05/23/04 |
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For the second day in a row severe
and potentially tornadic storms once again threatened much of Southern Ontario. Conditions
in Southwestern Ontario were particularly favorable for tornadoes which naturally
attracted many chasers to the region. While tornadoes did pose a threat the main
problem was flooding from the nearly constant rains. Nearly 100mm fell within the 2 day
period prior. The thunderstorms now produced the very real potential for flash flooding
due to the already saturated ground water table. Fortunately however the extensive rains
form the storms which did form was fairly |
localized and the extensive river
network which exists was capable of handling the excess water.
Above: A supercell thunderstorms with 3D uncorrolated
rotation approaches.
Right: Torrential rain and lightning pelt areas southeast of
London. |
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| Round
1: Elevated Supercell - 05/22/04 |
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The first system in a barrage of
low's spawned severe storms in the afternoon and evening hours across much of Southern
Ontario. The storms developed quickly along a stationary boundary associated with a high
to the north and warm front coming out of the south. The strongest storms remained in
Southwestern Ontario where surface temperatures aided by warm air advection climbed into
the mid 20 with very most dewpoints. One of the storms produced two F2 tornadoes in the
town of Mitchell. While the strongest storms remained south one cell in particular which
developed northwest of |
| London tracked northeast towards
Vaughan where it desperately tried to become surface based. While the storm was
unsuccessful it did managed to effect the surface environment to a certain degree and it
even spawn several funnel clouds and an elevated wall cloud. Above: elevated inflow rapidly feeds the strengthening storm
Right: Elevated wall clouds sucks up scud. |
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| London
storms put on a show - 05/10/04 |
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May has been off to a quick start.
Only 4 days after the first severe May storms Environment Canada found themselves issuing
another batch of warnings. The storms responsible formed along a boundary wave which
wandered south into a pool of unstable air between the Lake Huron and Lake Erie lake
breeze boundaries. The storms which started as multicell complex quickly turned into a
linear band as they approached the London area and then broke into 3 discrete cells. The
storms produced hail, powerful lightning and several funnel clouds which shocked many
residents in the towns of London and |
| Woodstock Ontario. The storms were
far more powerful than expected and exhibited far more rotation than the direct
environmental shear would have suggested. While the exact reason behind their rotation
still remains unclear, lake breeze interaction and the direct outflow from the storms
themselves in their discrete yet linear array would provide the most likely explanation.
The pattern which is responsible for the active weather appears to be holding strong and
with May remaining so active June and July could potentially bring much stronger
potentially destructive storms. |
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| Success
with big hailers - 05/06/04 |
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May would prove to be very
different from April with the first successful chase of the season only days into the
beginning of the month. The active weather was triggered by a mesoscale low pressure
system moving northeast out of Michigan. The low brought temperatures in the mid 20's to
much of extreme Southwestern Ontario and cleared out some of the stagnant cloud which had
been coating the province for several days. Environment Canada was quick to issue their
first watch for the month of May, as wind shear conditions and ample amounts of elevated
and surfaced based instability provided the perfect |
| brewing grounds for explosive and
powerful thunderstorm development. Soon after 6PM the first storms of the day formed in an
elevated layer of unstable air over Michigan. The storms which developed then quickly
tracked due east across Lake Huron and produced torrential rains and severe hail. The most
powerful storm was a large hail producer which moved on shore from Lake Huron and produced
hail over 2cm large in the Pinery Provincial Park area. The hail which accumulated in
fields and on road ways created dense fog. However no damage was reported in the area. |
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| Menacing
clouds in T.O - 04/28/04 |
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April left with a bang as
unseasonable mild air worked its way into much of Southern Ontario where it clashed with a
cold front. The relatively dry 22C air undercut very cold air with 850mb temperatures near
freezing. However instability remained shallow with a convective depth of no more than 6
or 7 km. Although the convective depth was very shallow it would prove to be more than
enough to trigger shallow yet charged storms that produced small hail, wind gusts and
powerful lightning strikes. The storms which progressed from west to the east produced
dark lowering and interesting scud cloud. |
|
| Triple
bust streak! - 04/22/04 |
| April 18th,
19th and 21st bust signal an unhappy start to the chase season for some, but bring hopes
of an early chase season and the potential for some real severe wx by May. Visit the chase
logs section for more info. |
| Mini
Blizzard - 03/21/04 |
 |
While it may be the second official
day of spring old man winter seems to think different. A large low pressure system out of
the north dropped the temperatures from 7C Saturday right down to -8C by Sunday morning
with brisk northerly winds gusting to 70km/h or more. Overnight Saturday snow squalls
dropped several cm of snow in areas directly downwind of Georgian Bay. The snow was then
whipped up by the brisk winds and ground blizzard conditions ensued in some regions down
wind of the lake. Hwy 26 between Barrie and Collingwood was particularly bad with whiteout
conditions and snow |
| covered roads. The OPP and local police had
their hands full as numerous vehicles were stuck in ditches or involved in accidents.
Plows were also busy hard at work clearing snow covered roads and for a good portion of
the day some smaller side roads were closed due to the poor conditions. |
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| Spring
Blast - 03/05/04 |
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Mother nature has been hard at work teasing
Southern Ontario with well above average temperatures. The first wave of +15C weather
blasted through on the 1st followed by nearly 20C temperatures only a few days later on
the 5th. The warm weather created isolated storms and brought drenching rains with some
areas seeing over 35mm on the 5th alone. As a result nearly every last pile of snow has
melted, which combined with runoff from the rains produced some localized flooding. The
weather has many chasers into storm mode and it is only a matter of time before spring
truly arrives. |
|
| Chase
Season 2004, Bust or Blast? |
| The winter of 03/04 looks to
leave a mixed impression on those living in Southern and Eastern Ontario. Extreme
temperatures ranged from +15C days to -40C nights and precipitation was just as extreme
with rain storms, lake effect storms and several rare upwind LES events off of Lake
Ontario. However, the winter overall remained calm with only a few major snow events to
speak of. All this has left many wondering what kind of a chase year 2004 will turn out to
be. The 2002 season remained relatively calm with only a few events, but was definitely
one of the hottest summers on record with many of the days having temps well over 30C. The
2003 season was certainly a cool one however there were nearly daily non-sever storms
occurring between mid July and mid August. That as a result many are left wondering what
2004 has in store. Will it be a repeat of the 99 season or a washout like 93? Only time
will tell. |
| Wxscan
Radio/Weather Group - 02/28/04 |
With the Canwarn list dead for
now and no present radio/scanner group operating, a good friend of mine Mr.Mark Rozitis
launched Wxscan today. The group is located on the Yahoo groups server and contains
hundreds of scanner codes, and many interesting photos taken in recent years. An excellent
group to join if you are interested in scanner/radios and weather.
Visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wxscan/
and join now! |
| Latest
News: Western New York Storms - 09/03/02 |
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Based upon nearly 100 years of
meteorological records this has clearly been one of the slowest years ever in terms of
storms and due to this the majority of chasers here in north America are pulling hair out
over it. The first opportunity for storms arose Tuesday when a front was expected to bring
scattered storms into much of southern and eastern Ontario. Unfortunately the stuff over
southern Ontario did not materialize but else where in the east it did. So I figured I
would head in that direction to see if I could see anything and was treated to a good show
from south of the border. Upon entering Pickering I |
I saw some nice cumulus that looked as if they
may mature into a storm. Within about 20 minutes 1 in particular formed into a fairly nice
storm that become photogenic. Although not severe in nature it did provide some relief to
the major SDS I had. I spent a good hour or more just taking photos from Pickering of the
storm fully maturing. Eventually the setting sun provided some nice pictures that I took
much later when I was in a local mall shopping for some goods.
|
 |
|
| Checking
out King City Radar |
| Since there is almost nothing
in the world of weather I decided to head up to the King City radar station and see what I
could find. As it turns out I found a locked gate, hehehe (should have seen that coming).
Anyway I took some pictures of the radar station which can be found here. |
| Muskoka
Storms - 08/15/02 |
 |
It was time for a good vacation so I headed
north to a nice area called Pickerel Lake which is just 20 minutes north of Huntsville.
During the stay I was treated with good weather except for Wednesday with on and off
showers. Fortunately I was heading out on a cruise from Bracebridge that took me into
something very unexpected. The cruise generally traveled around the perimeter of Lake
Muskoka and concentrated on millionaires row which was boring for my sake. I was about to
give up looking for storms when a massive severe supercell storm popped up in front of the
boat with clear striations |
indicating a strong presence of rotation.
Although the storm did not drop a funnel it did produce some good wind damage in
Bracebridge and Huntsville.
Also on Tuesday afternoon some storms popped up around the lake which I was staying
at and actually knocked down 1 tree across the only road into the area. It was interesting
that of all the places to strike a CG just had to hit the road. As far as
true severe weather goes there was none from these storms but some good rain did fall and
help to fill up the lakee. |
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|
| 2nd
Severe Chase - 07/22/02 |
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The general threat of severe weather was fairly
high this day and I was going to be heading out with Mark Rozitis. We had left just prior
to 1PM and had already run into heavy rain some wind from it but generally nothing to
severe until we made it to the King City area when we were greeted by a monstrous wall
cloud with ominous rotation. The entire thing took a good 10 min or so to pass and moved
directly over our heads. Shortly after we headed into Aurora in search of any damaged
hearing that trees had been uprooted on the scanner. It was not long before we found some
extensive damage.. |
| The first thing we came across was a down 100
year old willow tree in a gas station parking lot. The damage at first appeared to be that
of straight line winds but on second analysis it was clearly that of a microburst with all
the damage leaning away from a central point indicative of a microburst. Also on radar
there were several indications of such an event. The chase continued for 9 1/2 hours and
covered the majority of York and Simcoe. Although some of the storms did develop rotation
no confirmed tornadoes did touch down. |
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| Unexpected
HP light show - 07/21/02 |
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This was clearly one of those non forecasted
events. On my way back home from a small lake where I was fishing I actually thought I saw
a flicker of lightning. As it turns out I was right. There was a rapidly developing MCC
moving in from the west which developed in a matter of minutes and started putting down
large bolts of lightning. When I arrived home I quickly set up the tripod and started
taking images but the problem was that it was such a juicy precip filled storm that all
the good nearby strikes appeared as white globs of sheet lightning because of the
light spreading effect of the rain. Only a few images turned out. |
| The system actually developed very quickly into
a high precipitation lightning event. The storm was producing such a light show that it
set several gas mains in Toronto ablaze.
The flames are shooting up a good 15 or 12 meters in this
image. (taken by Mark Rozitis) |
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|
| Unstable
cold core low - 06/15/02 |
 |
As was expected a cold low from the north sat
over us brining instability. Storms had been triggerd all day long howevere it was very
doubt full that anything severe would appear but by the time 3PM rolled around a full
fledeged thunder storm was ripping through western Toronto producing small hail and
continus lightning strikes. The chase was not planned but in the end I was more than glad
to get out for a second day in a row. A cold air funnel cloud was spotted so the chase was
not a loss at all. Mark Rozitis was also on the road around the same time I was and he to
noticed some interesting stuff. |
|
| He had followed several storms and one in
particular was very interesting. He made his way to the lowering under its rather flat
base which was apparently where the main updraft was located and that resulted in him
seeing some very interesting scud cloud development. Unfortunately the storm did not
produce a cold air funnel but never the less it was a very interesting scenario especially
given the fact that much of what he saw was extremely effected by wind shear resulting in
many interesting and odd cloud formations along the base of this one storm in particular. |
 |
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| Semi
Severe Storms - 06/14/02 |
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A day that started out as foggy and cold ended
with some good chase conditions. Storms began to roll through in the later hour sof the
afternoon and provided us with much more of a show than expected. The very first storm we
came across produced a microburst which struck a commercial area. When we drove through to
investigate the effects it had not much damage had occured but at a homedepot garden
center every plant which was on a shelf was now on the floor. We the proceeded through
another cell and were met by marble sized hail. Near Windsor golf ball sized hail was
reported. |
|
| Biggest
Bust of Season - 06/12/02 |
| This day had been forecasted to be
severe ever since Friday in Southern Ontario and many had high hopes. The day before a
huge severe wx outbreak was scheduled the models showed nothing. The morning of the 12th
started off hot, humid and hazy with clear sky's. Capes soared above 2000 as a cold front
swept through. The end result of the front was a lot of TCU, rain and severely depressed
chasers. I decided to head out after 10PM to see what I could come up with but the end
result was nothing except a few cg's and some warm rain. All in all this was possibly the
worst bust of the year so far for all. |
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| Severe
Storms in Barrie - 05/31/02 |
 |
It was now leading into the third day of storms
when severe weather struck Barrie in the late morning hour. Mark Rozitis was on the road
after the cells and captured an amazing shelf cloud with winds probably exceeding 100km/h.
The storms had developed rather quickly along a cold front which would usher out out the
warm weather and cool things down in the afternoon. Although the storms started only as
innocent cumulus clouds they soon became towering monsters. Many people took shelter
quickly as this was the anniversary of the May 31st, 1985 F4 Tornado which killed people
and did major damage. |
|
| The storms in Barrie produced large hail over
2cm in diameter and winds in excess of 100km/h uprooting trees and knocking over power
lines. There were also several reports of funnel clouds. However the storms were non
tornadic and the reports were probably because of that fact that these storms struck the
same day as the F4 so many were worried. The 2
images in this section are courtesy of Mark Rozitis. The first shows the backside of a
shelf cloud with winds exceeding 100km/h below it and the second is a power line knocked
down. |
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|
| Severe
Storms in Barrie & Ajax - 05/30/02 |
 |
Leading into the second day of storms were the
Barrie and Ajax cells which erupted and produced massive towers as well as anvils with
beautiful mammatus. Unfortunately I was busy downtown shooting a video about the
St.Lawrence market so I got out late and managed to chased some other cells in the area
but got nothing good out of it however I was still able to get this image of one of the
Ajax cells from from front street. The storms had a history of large hail about 4cm in
diameter and high winds over 100km/h at the times this image was taken. |
|
| Outflow
Chase - 05/29/02 |
| After the quick burst of severe weather in
April everything died down in May. At one point it was so cold that it snowed which wiped
the though of chasing off everyones mind but that all changed on the 25. A weak squall
line brought some storms and lightning activity back to Ontario and from there it was all
uphill. May 29th was to be thre first of many great days. The day started off hot humid
and hazy with temps in the mid to upper 20's and humidity values of 70% and greater which
combined with instability to trigger afternoon storms. Although the severe weather was
short lived it did provide a chase. |
 |
|
| Latest
News: SDS temprorarily relieved - 05/16/02 |
| Finally after a prolonged
quite spell some activity late Thursday afternoon provided more rain and some interesting
lightning activity as well some odd cloud formations. While it was not chase worthy by any
means it did provide some relief for a chase community already suffering from SDS. A video
of an interesting cloud formation can be found in the video archive under May 16th. |
| Toronto
Canwarn Meeting - 05/04/02 |
| The canwarn meeting in Toronto
was a complete success and one of the best yet. It had excellent media coverage and to top
things off excellent weather. You can view the canwarn images
here. |
| April
19th Squall Line - 04/18/02 |
 |
The final round of storms this week was
concluded in the early hours of the morning on Friday when two squall lines developed. The
first along outflow and the second on a short wave. The storms were low topped but even so
they managed to put on an excellent light show not normally seen in mid April. The passage
of the front was marked with 90km/h winds and a blinding sand storm before the rain began.
With the passage of this latest front temperatures are expected to drop back to more
seasonal levels which means that it may be a while yet before we see any more storms. |
|
| Latest
News: April 17th Chase - 04/17/02 |
| As temperatures reached record highs for the second day in a
row and Buttonvill reported 30 degrees, a cold front from the northern US plains moved
through Wednesday just after the lunch hour triggering strong convective storms and
isolated severe weather. A tornado warning was in effect for the Peterborough area and
flooding as well as half inch hail were reported in the Barrie area. This severe weather
comes early in the year and more can be expected in the near future. The chase on this day
was 300km. It was good to finally chase but these storms were not truly sever in nature.
They did relieve my sds however. |
 |
|
| SNOW!
- 03/27/02 |
| The 2002 chase season was off to an early start
until a winter storm on the 26th removed that though from everyone's mind. The storm
dumped a average of 15cm north or Toronto and in surrounding areas with local
accumulations of 25cm - 30cm. Freezing rain was also seen in the southwest. Click the
beside link for a page about the storm. |
| Season
off to a early start - 03/10/02 |
 |
The first storms of the season rolled through on
March 9th. Much of the day was marked with warm temps above average in the 15 deg range.
As 6 PM rolled around a weak but interesting squall line was triggered along a sharp cold
front. Although the squall line was weak in comparison to summer storms it is still very
rare to see such weather that early in the season. The squall line brought winds of over
140km/h to many places and prompted many wind warnings. The low pressure system
responsible for the weather also had extremely strong winds associated with it prompting
more warnings. |
|
| Snow
Squalls |
With no severe weather in site, the snow squalls
are about the only thing making weather news this year. The major lack of winter storms
has also been very un-presented this year and very un-expected. The recent heavy snow
squalls have offered some cloud formations similar to those seen in summer but that still
leaves many in doubt and wondering what the 2002 season will have in store for us. The
snow squalls have been only thing trying to lower SDS levels in the chase
| community. The outlook for 2002
seems fairly good and we will just have to wait and see what mother nature has instore for
us. The picture to the left is a snow squall
generated from lifting of the air over the warm lake waters of lake Huron. Lapse rates
reached 12C at the 800mb level with some of these clouds. Thb linding conditions created
lead to numerous accidents and a seven car pile up along hiway 27 north near King County. |
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