Two tornadoes with wind speeds of 155 km/h struck Ottawa area on Thursday
Posted July 16, 2023 6:59 am.
Last Updated July 17, 2023 10:34 am.
At least two tornadoes touched down in a south-end Ottawa neighbourhood last Thursday.
According to Western University’s Northern Tornado Project (NTP), two separate EF1 tornadoes have been confirmed in the Barrhaven neighbourhood which caused damage to at least 125 homes.
NTP says a 200 metre-wide tornado tore a path of damage five kilometres long that crossed paths with an earlier tornado that was 150 metres wide and whose damage was calculated at one metre in length.
“Based on the structural damage, a maximum wind speed of 155 km/h hour was estimated, which falls in the EF1 category on the EF scale. That applies to both tornadoes,” NTP said based on evidence and analysis conducted so far.
RELATED: Photo gallery of tornado damage in Ottawa-area suburb
NTP says it is also investigating a confirmed tornado at the Montréal–Mirabel International Airport.
“No damage has been investigated with this tornado at this time, so an EF scale rating is pending.”
Ottawa has been hit with a string of severe storms in recent years. In September 2018, six tornadoes touched down in several places in the Ottawa area and across the river in Gatineau, Que.
Dozens of homes were damaged and 25 people were injured. One tornado struck a city power station cutting power to about half the city’s homes, some for several days.
In May 2022 the city was hit hard by a derecho, a long straight line of storms with winds often in excess of 100 km/h, that damaged dozens of homes and toppled power lines like matchsticks. Power outages again stretched across large swaths of the city and some weren’t restored for several weeks.
Files from CityNews Ottawa were used in this report
