| 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 |
|
| 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 |
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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. |
|
| 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! |
| 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. |
