Fergus storm chaser David Patrick got some astonishing video and photos of a tornado that touched down south of Wellington Road 109 just east of Arthur around 6pm on Aug. 7.
It was the second tornado confirmed in Wellington North Township in just over two months (another was tracked by Patrick on June 1 near Kenilworth).
Environment Canada confirmed the Arthur sighting was a tornado, one of three confirmed tornadoes during the severe weather last Wednesday.
No significant damage was reported.
According to the Environment Canada website, which received reports from Patrick and issued a tornado warning based on those reports, the twister near Arthur and Grand Valley tracked along the ground for 4.5 kilometres, with a path 100 metres wide.
An Environment Canada storm investigator rated it an enhanced Fujita (EF) scale zero storm, the weakest on the scale, with winds between 90 and 130km/h.
A second EF-0 tornado was confirmed in the Orillia area, while the third, near Carnarvon, north of Minden, has not yet been rated.
Patrick followed the signs in the Listowel-Palmerson area indicating that strong thunderstorms were forming and could result in a tornado on Aug. 7 at around 3pm.
“I saw a cell develop in Listowel,” he said of the storm tracking he followed. “It got organized about five kilometers west of Arthur. When it got past Arthur it really started to ramp up.”
Patrick likened the creation of a tornado to shaking a pop bottle and once the cap is removed “it pops up.”
The funnel touched down about five kilometers east of Arthur on the south side of Wellington Road 109.
“The original tornado touched down on Wellington Road 16 on the 8th Line,” he said.
It advanced north and crossed the highway at about the 6th Line. Patrick said he was surprised it didn’t damage vehicles on the highway near it.
It did, according to him, carry some debris from downed trees and signs, including a Wellington North Township sign which he said travelled about 300 feet. It also crossed several wheat fields, but the fields had been harvested prior to the tornado, he said.
In a report to Environment Canada he said he tracked the tornado from about 5:44 to 6:04pm with the tornado touching ground for about 15 minutes. It eventually dissipated near Caledon.
Patrick said the Arthur area is like a “mini tornado alley,” referring to an area of midwestern states in the U.S. prone to tornadoes known as “tornado alley.”
In the 20 years he’s been storm chasing, Patrick has documented about 10 tornadoes in the Arthur area.
The storm chaser believes the Wellington County area is well positioned because of the effects of off-lake winds from Lake Huron or Lake Erie or Lake Ontario and its elevation of about 400 feet above sea level.
“You have to have proper winds to create a tornado,” Patrick said.
One the photos he took shows an anti-wind turbine sign in the lower left corner, something he believes was coincidental, considering the wind elements involved in tornados.
“It’s nature’s largest wind turbine,” he said.
