Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Tornado Warnings in Ontario

Supercell thunderstorms are developing in the very warm humid air across Ontario, Quebec and New York.

Keep and eye to the sky and check out the weather links on the left hand side.

Here is my weather column from the Iroquois Chieftain for this week...

More wicked severe summer weather developed again across Ontario this week. Two more tornadoes touched down just south of Walkerville. The tornadoes were part of a very impressive supercell thunderstorm that moved off Lake Huron towards Lake Erie. It lasted over 7 hours and produced hail and fierce straight line winds. Damage was limited to some farms with no injuries reported. In our area several thunderstorms popped up in the warm and humid air mass on Monday. The storms developed rapidly and moved south along a line from Winchester to Cardinal and east to Morrisburg. To show you just how fast these storms can surprise you on an otherwise fair day, within 30 minutes the storms had developed and moved south of the river into central New York. By the time warnings were issued the storms had passed out of our area. When the air is extremely unstable with high humidity and heat, thunderstorms are always possible. Learn how to spot them before they affect you and seek shelter, especially if you are on the open water, or the golf course.
The storms are part of the leading edge of very hot, searing heat that has been affecting the US and west. It was close to 40C in southwest Saskatchewan and southern Alberta late last week. Meanwhile triple digit Fahrenheit heat and record wildfires continue to affect the US West. Hundreds of thousands of acres are burning from South Dakota to California. One wildfire in Utah, is a killer, and is consuming at times, an astonishing 10,000 acres an hour.
We will continue to be on the edge of this heat with numerous weather systems bringing us bouts of hot followed by very cool weather and in between thunderstorms. This is typical Summer weather in our latitudes especially when we are on the fringe of the warm high pressure that is heating up the US.
For updates and important links to weather right here in the Seaway, visit my website at http://valleyweather.blogspot.com/

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