Tornadoes touch down as storms track across southern Ontario

A line of thunderstorms swept through southern Ontario this evening, triggering a series of severe weather watches and warnings as they brought heavy rain, strong winds, and even formed several funnel clouds and tornadoes.

Severe thunderstorm watches have been in effect since this afternoon, as Environment Canada forecasters noticed the potential for strong storms to develop. There were some storms passing through southwestern Ontario and central Ontario during this time, but they did not reach severe levels. In the evening, the storms began to form in a line roughly centred between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron — along the 'lake breeze convergence zone' — and these storms tracked eastward.

The first sign of trouble was east of Arthur, in northern Wellington County, as storm spotters captured images of this twister as it formed:

As these storms continued to the east, more tornado warnings were called for regions north of the GTA — near Caledon in northern Peel County, around Orillia, Lagoon City and Washago, and in northern Durham Country near Uxbridge and Beaverton. Regions further to the east and northeast, into the Kawartha Lakes area, Haliburton and into western Algonquin region were also under tornado warnings as storms tracked through.

Although most warnings have passed through regions fairly quickly today, particularly persistent storms in the Peterborough/Kawartha Lakes area have meant that tornado warnings there have stayed on for the past three hours. Heavy rains in the area have flooded some roads in Peterborough, and residents in the area were able to capture spectacular images like this:

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With this unstable weather persisting, severe thunderstorm watches have remained in effect from Sarnia to Ottawa, with more severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings popping up as forecasters see particularly strong storms or indications of rotation on their weather radar.

More updates will be posted throughout the evening.

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