Environment Canada issued a series of warnings and warnings of tornadoes and severe storms over potentially dangerous storms in southwestern Ontario on Wednesday afternoon and into the evening.
Shortly after 5 pm ET, a tornado warning was issued for Sarnia-Lambton and Huron-Perth. The tornado warning was downgraded to a clock shortly after, but as of 5:30 p.m. ET there was a tornado clock in parts of Huron-Perth.
Areas along the shores of Lake Huron from Goderich and north to the Gray Bruce Peninsula were being hit by strong winds and rain.
As of 5:30 p.m., tornado watchers were in place for:
- London-Middlesex.
- Gray-Bruce.
- Sarnia-Lambton.
- Windsor-Essex-Chatham Kent.
Other areas, including Elgin and Waterloo Wellington, were under severe storm warnings as of 5 p.m. ET.
Bluewater Power reported a weather-related outage in Sarnia that affected some 3,200 customers, but has since restored electricity to the affected area.
Tornado watchdog statements say the storms could cause damaging wind gusts of between 90 and 110 kilometers per hour. A hail the size of a nickel and up to the size of a tonie is also possible.
Geoff Coulson is an Environment Canada metrologist. He said the weather model shows storms with the potential to affect a wide strip of southwestern Ontario.
“The area of greatest concern at this point is from the Windsor area through London and also includes the shores of Lake Huron and across the Bruce Peninsula, and parts of Gerogian Bay,” he said. to say. “The real concern right now is the southwest.”
Couslon recommends that anyone planning outdoor activities on Wednesdays and evenings pay attention to weather statements and alerts.
East of Exeter 17:38 pic.twitter.com/7TL328CdAX
– @alyshamill
“Keeping an eye on the sky and the weather statements will be very important in what could be a rapidly developing situation this afternoon and this afternoon,” he said.
Storms are expected to develop in eastern Michigan or Lake Huron this afternoon and then continue east into the evening.
The statement says the threat of bad weather will lessen as storms move east this afternoon.
The special weather statement comes when all of southern Ontario is already under heat alert. The forecast for daytime highs in London is 31 ºC. Given the humidity, temperatures in some parts of southwestern Ontario could reach 40 ºC.