While Environment Canada’s weather office had sufficient evidence of possible tornado activity in the area north of Cochrane it still has not confirmed if the twister hit ground says Geoff Coulson, the warning preparedness meteorologist for Ontario Region Client Services, the man who tracks severe weather across the province.
“We began tracking severe weather reported by Kapuskasing airport yesterday around 5:30 p.m.,“ said Coulson. “It was a severe thunderstorm that hit for about 15 minutes and then the weather pattern continued to the east where it continued to grow in intensity to the point that it started to rotate in a circular motion indicating possible tornado activity.”
Environment Canada’s weather office issued a tornado warning for the area between 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. for the Cochrane and Iroquois Falls area.
“We haven’t received any word of damage or photos showing tornado activity and it could be that the force of the tornado hit north of Cochrane,” Coulson surmised. “Most likely north of Highway 652 some time between 8 and 10 p.m.”
Coulson has asked anyone in the Cochrane areas has photographs of tornado activity or other information they want to share to submit it to [email protected]
“So we won’t know if the tornado activity had any impact, unless someone was out there and took photos,” he said.
“We also often get confirmation from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry office in Timmins when they do flyovers to monitor for forest fire activity,” explained Coulson.
“But we haven’t received anything from them either,” Coulson noted.
Environment Canada tracks weather movement in Northeastern Ontario through its ground stations located at Kapuskasing and Timmins airports and other airports. They also have a Doppler radar installation in Timmins that according to Coulson gives a pretty good tracking of weather for northeastern Ontario.
Coulson said the area around Kapuskasing, Timmins and Cochrane is quite active for tornadoes as is the area around Thunder Bay Nipigon and to the Manitoba border.
“Many people have the impression that tornados strike more frequently in southern Ontario,” Coulson said. “But that is not true, they occur frequently in the North as well but often aren’t reported because there is more open space in Northern Ontario and the tornados touch down in areas away from population centres.”
A survey of local Facebook pages such as Northern Ontario Tornado watch showed postings about the Environment Canada tornado warnings but nothing yet about possible damage or impacts.
A further survey of individual Facebook users in the area turned up several photos of threatening skies but no tornado activity.
The switchboard operator at Cochrane Airport said pilots landing reported hail and ice pellets but no tornadoes.
In his capacity as warning preparedness meteorologist, Coulson also works with CANWARN a volunteer organization of ham radio operators who report severe weather when they see it to Environment Canada. They confirm on the ground what satellites and radars see in the atmosphere. This is called “ground-truthing”.
Environment Canada's weather centres alert the CANWARN volunteers at the organization's regional stations in the affected areas and they in turn contact other CANWARN members and ask them to report signs of approaching severe weather.
