A team of Western University investigators, working with Environment Canada, will try to determine whether it was a small tornado that ripped the roof off a barn northeast of London on Tuesday.
A line of thunderstorms rolled through the London area around 4pm. The unstable weather was the result of a cold front combining with moisture in the air, followed by a wind shift to the northwest.
"The storm damage was basically northeast of the London airport. There was a barn in that vicinity that had some damage and also some power poles down towards Thamesford," said Peter Kimbell, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada. "Not a lot of damage but it's certainly an interesting beginning to the summer severe weather season."
Kimbell said there are a number of indicators investigators look for when they inspect damage caused by powerful storms.
"Investigators generally look for what damage occurred," said Kimbell. "Obviously we are forced to look at whether there was damage because, if a weather event goes over a farmer's field then there is nothing to damage and we won't know what happened. In this particular case, they will look at the orientation of the damage, if it looks like it was rotational or a straight line."
While it is slightly early for these types of supercell storms to strike southwestern Ontario, Kimbell said it isn't unheard of.
"Typically the summer severe weather season begins in the month of May," said Kimbell. "However, we had a tornado observed last year on March 16 in Clifford, an EF-1 tornado. I'm not saying we had a tornado this year but we are investigating in collaboration with Western University."
The team from Western is expected to survey the damage sometime on Wednesday and report back to Environment Canada. The weather agency opted to partner with the university because of the minimal extent of damage, saving its own investigative efforts for more severe storms.
The photos below were taken by and provided by Harry Schut of FotoSchut Photography.
