Unsettled weather returns

Despite the presence of high pressure and sunshine, yesterday was another in a series with popcorn showers and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. After my blog entry about how dry it has been and only receiving 38mm of rain for May, we have now had 44mm at the airport since June 1, and between 50-100mm in many other locations around the city. More rain is on the way. After a sunny day today, low pressure over the Great Lakes will swing east and produce another cloudy, cool and windy day Thursday, with periods of rain. Skies will clear out Friday and it will be pleasant into Saturday before the air mass becomes more humid with thunderstorms Sunday. Temperatures will be around 22C today, drop to the teens tomorrow with the cloud cover and rain and rebound to the mid 20's for the weekend. Looking into next week and beyond it appears that very warm and humid weather is on the way.

Leamington, Ontario tornado damage (Leamington Post photo)

F-2
Looking at some of the damage from Sunday's storm in southwest Ontario it appeared that the damage was much worse than an F-1 storm. My suspicions were confirmed yesterday when Environment Canada determined that the Leamington storm had damage along sections of its path that have qualified the storm as an F-2. Investigators found a two storey house that had been shifted on its foundation. A storm of this strength is capable of winds between 180 and 240km/h.