Fierce Tornadoes Slam the Ottawa, Canada Metro Area!
Severe damage is being reported tonight in the suburbs around Ottawa, straddling the border between Quebec and Ontario. Videos taken from the area confirm that one or more tornadoes moved through around 5 pm ET. These powerful storms have led to injuries, shattered homes and businesses, and nearly 200,000 without power this evening!
The severe storms erupted earlier on Friday afternoon along a strong front all the way from the U.S. Midwest up through southern Quebec. Particularly strong cells moved along the Quebec-Ontario border late in the afternoon (see radar animation above). One of these cells spawned at least one long-track tornado. It’s also possible there was more than one tornado moving along the same path. The towns of Dunrobin in Ontario and Gatineau in Quebec were especially hard-hit (see map and tweet videos below). A preliminary assessment of the damage depicted by pictures and videos indicate at least an EF-2 tornado moving through a heavily populated suburb of a major city. In fact, the Ottawa International Airport had to switch to backup power Friday evening as the storms rolled through. The severe storms have since diminished and moved into the northeast U.S.
OMG !!! Inside the #Tornado #Gatineau #Tornade #QC pic.twitter.com/4t4MiqfRXh
— Mandeville1694 (@2Mandeville1694) September 22, 2018
Tornado tears through Ottawa-Gatineauhttps://t.co/k3ioVBeIAy pic.twitter.com/sNGa8sr5je
— Robyn Bresnahan (@RobynBresnahan) September 22, 2018
