(via @wwxchaser/Twitter)
Extreme weather in the Shelburne, Ontario area yesterday has now been confirmed as a tornado touching down. Here’s what you need to know about the Shelburne tornado.
1) Rural Area
The tornado hit the area just north of Shelburne, a small town about 100 km northwest of Toronto.
2) Category F1
Pieces of debris are scattered everywhere just north of Shelburne where possible tornado touched down last night twitter.com/nparnessCTV/st…
— Naomi Parness (@nparnessCTV) April 19, 2013
Environment Canada said that following a preliminary investigation, it looks as though the tornado was a category F1. The second level of tornado intensity, F1 tornadoes have wind speeds between 117- 180 km/h (73-112 mph) causing moderate damage.
3) Happened Thursday Night
After prelim investigation, .@environmentca confirms an EF 1 tornado touched down in #Shelburne last night. twitter.com/citytammie/sta…
— Tammie Sutherland (@citytammie) April 19, 2013
The sudden burst of rain and high winds began around 5:30 p.m. Thursday, tearing apart a large indoor horse-riding barn near Highway 10, just northwest of Shelburne.
4) Barn Destroyed
Possibly part of a barn north of Shelburne where possible tornado touched down twitter.com/nparnessCTV/st…
— Naomi Parness (@nparnessCTV) April 19, 2013
“We had a really strange sky coming in,” John Purdy, owner of the destroyed barn told CBC News. “The horses in the field started to run around like crazy, so my wife went out to bring those horses in. Within about three minutes of that there was driving rain here, you couldn’t even see the road.
“The rain was coming sideways. There was a loud boom it turns out it was the indoor riding arena, which was built in 2000. It’s 100 feet by 70 [30 metres by 20]. It took it out of there like it was a twig.”
5) Power Outages
About 200 people were left without power in nearby East Gwillimbury following the storm after hydro poles were knocked down. Cleanup is expected to take two to three days.