I arrived home from Chicago about 4:45 p.m. and immediately turned on the computer to see how the system was developing.  I thought I may have missed it, due to the severe storms that fired up around the London area around 2:00pm, but was relieved when I saw I had not.  I downloaded the latest RUC (Rapid Update Cycle) and ETA models and other satellite and radar images and noticed that storms were firing near Lake Simcoe about 5:20pm. With the capes running about 3000 and -4 to -6 lift indices, I thought that anything that started would quickly become severe. I was chatting with some other spotters and downloading new Nexrad radar images (that I pay for from a company in the U.S) every ten minutes when I noticed a small blip of green northeast of me.  I continued to talk with other spotters reporting they were seeing nothing when, at the 5:51pm update showed a large supercell forming in the area where the green blip was. 

I got all my chase equipment together (camcorder, scanner, cameras), grabbed a few pops and headed north from Fergus.  I saw the towering storm cells forming along a northeast to southwest line.  I traveled north along some back roads constantly looking at the clouds and decide on the cell to the north of Fergus.  I was driving north when I noticed that a small lowering was forming to my east and a little rotation was present in the scud clouds.  Due to the fact that these storms were moving east into me, I headed north to get behind them.  As this storm cell passed, I caught a few funnel cloud formations on tape.  The rotation was very slow and they quickly dissipated.  It was then I knew I had a good cell on my hands here.  I fell in behind it and started to track it.  I pulled over on the road and a guy pulled up and thought I was someone else and asked what I was doing, so I told him I was storm chasing and he said that this was the place to do it (meaning the past events that have happened there). I pulled away and tracked it for about 5 kms to the east. Time was 6:25pm

All of a sudden, the storm started to back-build on me.  I thought my eyes were going weird because the storms were tracking east and, here I see, a large lowering heading rapidly west at about 80 km/h. 

The photo is courtesy of : Satellite Data Laboratory, Meteorological Research Branch, Environment Canada. 1998

I turned around quickly and moved back west about 1 km and backed into a person's driveway giving me the option to go either way.   I got the video camera out and turned to look at the wall cloud formation when I noticed  a small tight funnel cloud starting to form.  Recording this, it started to snake downwards from the wall cloud toward the ground.  I was about 4 kms from this and, due to the fact that there was a tree stand about 3 kms away, could not see it actually contact the ground.  Looking on the outer edge of the tree stand I noticed a lot of debris floating outward from it about 200 feet from the funnel and this is when I knew I had a touchdown. Time was 6:35pm.  At this time I was approx. 10kms east of Arthur, a couple of kms east of Hwy# 16.

I recorded this fact and then as quickly as it happened, it started to retreat back into the wall cloud and was gone.  The total time was about 35 secs.  It was on the ground for about 8 secs and then rose back up. I immediately got on the phone and reported this to Environment Canada and then decided to drive north as he said that there was another cell to my west building.  Took off north about 2 kms across hwy#9 and ran into the guy I had talked to before and asked him if he saw it and he was really mad he missed it.  I then was in the process of calling Brian Hill Of 680 News when a lightning strike hit right beside me.  It was so close that I felt the electricity in the air but did not hear it except the echo. Decided to get to a safe place to use the cell phone and call Brian.  Told him what I saw and within 2-3 minutes he was on the air with the information.  I decided to check the film and see if it came out and it did so I headed toward home.  By the time I got home, an e-mail from Brian was in the computer asking for an interview and the rest is history.

Fergus News Express Newspaper Interview

Kitchener Record Newspaper Interview

Guelph Mercury Newspaper Interview

CKCO TV Interview Image1 Image2

Total Chase Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes  (5:50pm - 7:20pm)

Total Chase Distance: 50kms roundtrip

What I got: 2 funnel clouds, 1 F0 tornado and lots of great memories.

MORE THAN A TASTE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS..

MOTHER NATURE SERVED UP A HUGE FEAST OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS
BEGINNING YESTERDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH TO EARLY THIS MORNING THANKS TO A WARM FRONT OVER CENTRAL ONTARIO. THUNDERSTORMS STARTED DEVELOPING THURSDAY AFTERNOON OVER NORTHERN LAKE MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN AND QUICKLY SPREAD ALONG THE LINE OF THE WARM FRONT INTO AREAS NORTH OF A LINE FROM GODERICH TO KITCHENER TO HAMILTON AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM MANITOULIN ISLAND TO ALGONQUIN PARK TO KINGSTON. THE THUNDERSTORMS THEN TRACKED ACROSS LAKE ONTARIO INTO WESTERN NEW YORK. MANY AREAS RECEIVED TWO OR THREE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ESPECIALLY IN A BAND EXTENDING FROM BARRIE TO PETERBOROUGH.

AS THE THUNDERSTORMS ROARED ACROSS THE DISTRICT THEY GENERATED A NUMBER OF STRONG WIND GUSTS..FUNNEL CLOUDS AND POSSIBLE TORNADOES AS INDICATED IN THE TABLE BELOW. A COMBINATION OF FUNNEL CLOUDS.. POSSIBLE TORNADO SIGHTINGS..HOOK ECHOES..AND MESOCYCLONES OBSERVED ON DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR SPAWNED A SERIES OF TORNADO WARNINGS EXTENDING FROM THE BARRIE-ORANGEVILLE AREA EAST ACROSS LAKE SIMCOE TO PETERBOROUGH LAST NIGHT. THESE TORNADO WARNINGS WERE IN ADDITION TO A PLETHORA OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCHES AND WARNINGS THAT
WERE ISSUED BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA.

THE THUNDERSTORMS ALSO CREATED A VERY IMPRESSIVE LIGHT SHOW WITH MANY AREAS EXPERIENCING CONTINUOUS LIGHTNING LAST NIGHT. IN FACT THE LIGHTING DETECTOR NETWORK WAS FREQUENTLY SHOWING MORE THAN 3000 LIGHTNING STRIKES PER 10 MINUTES OVER SOUTHERN ONTARIO MICHIGAN AND WESTERN NEW YORK STATE DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE STORMS. THERE WERE A NUMBER OF REPORTS OF POWER OUTAGES DUE TO THE THUNDERSTORMS.

IN ADDITION THERE WERE NUMEROUS REPORTS OF SMALL HAIL STRONG WINDS AND TORRENTIAL DRIVING DOWNPOURS GIVING LOCAL AMOUNTS OF 30 TO 60 MM IN AN HOUR OR LESS AS FAR NORTHWEST AS MANITOULIN ISLAND LAST NIGHT. LOCAL FLOODING WAS REPORTED IN SEVERAL AREAS AS A RESULT. IN FACT 63 MM OF RAIN FELL AT PETERBOROUGH AIRPORT DURING THE THUNDERSTORMS.

THE TABLE BELOW GIVES A PRELIMINARY SUMMARY OF THE SEVERE WEATHER EVENTS REPORTED AS OF 5.00 AM THIS MORNING. MORE REPORTS OF SEVERE WEATHER AND POSSIBLE DAMAGE WILL LIKELY FILTER IN LATER TODAY.

TIME LOCATION EVENT

6.10 PM ARTHUR AREA (WELLINGTON COUNTY) 1-2 CM HAIL
6.40 PM NE FERGUS (WELLINGTON COUNTY) FUNNEL CLOUD
CONFIRMED F0 TORNADO  BREIF TOUCHDOWN
6.40 PM CORNWALL 1.25 CM HAIL WIND GUSTS 75 KM/H
6.45 PM 10 KM N OF HAVELOCK (50 KM NE OF PETERBOROUGH) POSSIBLE TORNADO
7.20 PM LINDSAY POSSIBLE TORNADO
7.30 PM SHADOW LAKE (NEAR BALSAM) POSSIBLE TORNADO
(PETERBOROUGH/KAWARTHAS REGION)
7.40 PM MOUNT ALBERT (30 KM NE OF 1 CM HAIL NEWMARKET) NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY IN TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR
9.15-9.30 PM OSHAWA AREA FUNNEL CLOUDS OBSERVED
11.02 PM ANGUS (20 KM W BARRIE) 2 FUNNEL CLOUDS
11.55 PM 5 KM N OF LINDSAY 3 CM HAIL
12.18 AM 5 KM NE OF COBOURG (QUINTE-NORTHUMBERLAND REGION) 100 KM/H WIND
1.00 AM BELLEVILLE BOATS FLIPPED OVER IN HARBOUR
1.00 AM POINT PETRE (40 KM S BELLEVILLE) WIND GUST OF 137 KM/H
1.22 AM FERGUS 100 KM/H WIND GUST
2.00 AM BOWMANVILLE FUNNEL CLOUD
3.00 AM ST CATHARINES 80 KM/H WIND GUST