PHOTOS: Severe storms hit southern Ontario with hail, damaging winds

Digital Writers
·8 min read
PHOTOS: Severe storms hit southern Ontario with hail, damaging winds

A muggy midsummer day across the Great Lakes sparked a vicious round of severe thunderstorms in southern Ontario on Thursday.

Severe thunderstorms bubbled across Michigan through the first half of Thursday, quickly sweeping east across the international border.

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These storms formed into squall lines that generated damaging wind gusts as they rolled into southwestern Ontario. Sarnia was the first to take a hit from the severe thunderstorms, where Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a tornado warning due to strong rotation within the line of storms.

Sarnia Airport measured a wind gust of 115 km/h as the storms moved overhead. ECCC relayed reports of “extensive damage” around Sarnia as a result of the powerful winds. Winds peaked at 96 km/h in Windsor, with a 78 km/h gust reported in Chatham.

Experts will likely investigate any reports of potential tornadoes in the area, although the amount of damage around Sarnia is a testament to the dangers of straight-line winds even without a tornado.

Bluewater Power reported tens of thousands of outages in the Sarnia area in the 4:00 p.m. hour in the immediate wake of the storms, with ENWIN Utilities reporting nearly 10,000 outages near Windsor after the storm.

By 7:30 p.m., Hydro One reported more than 25,000 customers without power throughout its coverage area in southern Ontario.

The broken lines of storms continued pushing east through the early evening hours, bringing strong winds, large hail, and heavy rainfall to much of the region.

Picturesque shelf clouds developed along the leading edge of the storms as they rolled through on Thursday. Shelf clouds form when a storm’s cold outflow winds scoop up muggy air, causing the moisture to condense just beneath the base of the thunderstorm. Well-defined shelf clouds lend a striking appearance to an approaching storm.

Check out some of the visuals of these severe storms and their aftermath as they swept through southern Ontario, below.

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Thumbnail image courtesy of Rod Chaulk in Essex, Ontario.

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