Tornado rips through Montreal area, uproots trees, overturns semi-trailer

A tornado that ripped done nan Greater Montreal Area Wednesday nighttime uprooted trees, overturned a semi-trailer and caused harm to infrastructure, Environment Canada says.

The national upwind agency confirmed Thursday greeting that a tornado touched down successful Brossard, Que., astatine 8:12 p.m.

The Northern Tornado Project (NTP), which is based successful Ontario, will behaviour an investigation Thursday to measure nan damages, Environment Canada said successful its upwind summary Thursday.

Pictures shared by nan upwind agency connected X showed nan harm nan tornado caused.

The NTP, retired of Western University successful London, Ont., published a summary of caller data successful May stating that Saskatchewan is nary longer nan state pinch nan highest tornado frequency. The Prairie state had an mean of 17.4 tornadoes per twelvemonth successful nan 1980-2009 dataset, dropping to 14.6 per twelvemonth successful nan 1991-2020 data.

Dave Sills, executive head of nan NTP, told Global News successful June that since nan group started successful 2017, they’ve recovered that nan strongest tornadoes person been astir Barrie, Ont., eastbound Ontario and confederate Quebec.

Historically, immoderate of nan biggest tornadoes successful Ontario were recorded successful May and June, including EF4 tornadoes successful Sarnia successful May 1953 and Barrie successful May 1985 and an EF4 successful nan Windsor area successful June 1946.

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In nan past 20 years, however, terrible tornado activity has shifted later successful nan summertime – July done September.

“There was an EF3 tornado that went done Dunrobin (Ottawa) and into Gatineau. That was September 21st, 2018.”

An EF3 tornado that struck Goderich successful 2011 occurred successful precocious August.

Why nan play is extending into September is still unknown, but Sills theorizes nan Great Lakes whitethorn beryllium playing a role.

“If they person warmed — which is what I understand from the climate change studies and nan modelling studies is that nan Great Lakes person been warming — that tin person an impact,” he suggested.

“When we looked astatine our neighbouring states, Michigan and New York state, they didn’t person that aforesaid shape wherever things were shifting later. It was thing peculiar to confederate Ontario.”

— pinch files from Jacquelyn LeBel