South-Eastern Ontario Beset by April Tornadoes — No April Fool’s!

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erhaps it’s just my being a Manitoba ex-patriot; but I was shock-stricken by what I’d initially thought a belated Twitter message from Canada’s “The Weather Network” concerning tornado watches and warnings being released by Environment Canada (the Canadian government department responsible for acting as the official weather forecaster) being issued for this very night.  So to verify, I visited the Ministry’s website and, sure enough, there’s severe risk of tornadoes turning the still frozen topsoil up into the high heavens along with anything else fixed at or near ground zero within the twister’s dreaded path:

The region coloured in bright red in the map of southern Ontario above denotes a region called “Barrie-Orillia-Midland”; and is so coloured to indicate a weather warning.  (Amber indicates a weather watch, while green indicates watch/warning ended.)  Source: Environment Canada, 11-Apr-2011.

So far, no reports of twisters reaching the ground or causing damage/fatality have been reported.  Should such events follow this extraordinary event, I’ll be sure to post updates to this article for reference.

It bears mentioning too that southern Ontario isn’t exactly Canada’s “tornado alley”….that would be more the case on the Canadian prairies (which I still call “home”, despite having lived in Ottawa, Ontario since summer of 2000).  Tornadoes in the summer months are a very real danger pretty much anywhere near Winnipeg — indeed the city itself if struck by tornadoes of sufficient intensity to do serious damage or pose a risk to personal safety every second or third season. (But never in April, particularly given that Winnipeg’s climate is lightly cooler than Ottawa’s or Barrie-Orillia-Midland’s