June 18 Quebec tornado outbreak largest in provincial history: Western University experts

Last year’s tornado outbreak in southern Quebec was the largest ever in the province and one of the largest in Canadian history.

READ MORE: Western University researchers develop breakthrough short-term tornado forecasting

Wind engineering experts at Western University made the determination following an extensive ground and aerial survey.

“Many Canadians don’t realize that we can have intense tornadoes in the northern regions of the country,” said Western engineering professor and lead researcher for the Northern Tornadoes Project, Greg Kopp.

“The goal of our project is to identify as many of these as we can so that we can better define the true risk in those areas.”

Initial data suggested four tornadoes formed on June 18 but new data out of Western shows there were nearly three times that.

Seven new tornadoes were detected through advanced satellite imagery, raising the total in the outbreak to 11.

READ MORE: Tornado watch in effect for parts of Quebec and Ontario

The project also identified two previously undetected tornadoes in northern Ontario last year on June 14 and the other July 25, both in the Dryden area.

In addition to Kopp, the survey was also led by Joanne Kennell and Emilio Hong also with the Northern Tornadoes Project, which is a collaboration between Western University and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).