Tornado touched down Sunday in Fergus, Ont., experts confirm
A tornado left a path of destruction in Fergus, Ont. on Sunday.
That was confirmed by the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP), based out of Western University in London, Ont., after their experts visited the small community on Monday.
The survey team has given the twister a preliminary rating of EF0, the lowest rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with estimated wind speeds between 90 km/h and 130 km/h.
Reaction from residents
Tabitha Champagne said she’s always keeping an eye on the skies.
“I love weather, so I generally will check the radar every day. Yesterday it looked pretty boring.”
She was at home in Kitchener, Ont. when things started to really pick up around 9:30 p.m.
“All of the sudden, it literally broke loose,” Champagne told CTV News. “It went from 30 km/h winds to, like, 100 [km/h]. It was pouring and there was ice mixed in with it.”
A tree leans on the roof of a home in Fergus, Ont. on Nov. 11, 2024 after a possible tornado was reported on Nov. 10, 2024. (Tom Podolec/CTV News)
Jay Price was at his Fergus, Ont. home when the storm drew his attention away from the television.
“All of a sudden, you could hear the thunder and the wind just picked up,” he recalled. “It was probably the strongest wind I’ve ever seen in my life. It just whipped right through.”
He spoke to CTV News on Monday morning, while trying to remove a tree that had fallen onto his roof. No one inside the home felt the impact, but Price said it came close to his son’s bedroom window.
“It was probably the weirdest thing I’ve been a part of in my life. It was almost surreal,” he said. “You weren’t sure what was happening.”
Emergency response
While the storm was felt throughout Wellington County, Guelph and the Region of Waterloo, most of the damage was reported near Fergus.
Crews from Centre Wellington Fire Rescue responded to a couple of calls during the storm, but overall, Deputy Fire Chief Jonathan Karn said the community fared pretty well.
“We were out twice last night to a fire alarm as well as some [hydro] wires down due to trees that came down,” he explained “No significant calls for us last night with the storm.”
Emergency responders assess the damage outside a Fergus, Ont. home on Nov. 11, 2024 after a possible tornado was reported on Nov. 10, 2024. (Tom Podolec/CTV News)
Tornado investigation
On Monday morning, NTP confirmed a survey team had been dispatched to Fergus to investigate "potentially tornadic damage.”
“[The storm] strengthened as it came through the middle parts of Ontario, through London and Kitchener,” explained NTP executive director David Sills. “As it went through the Fergus area, we saw there was a rollup in the precipitation and there was some rotation, even some evidence of lofted debris, so we believe that there was probably a tornado.”
He said the investigation could also expand to nearby communities.
“Fergus is where we know there was an enhanced area of damage, so we’ll start there. Through the day, we will probably get more reports and we can expand outward from there. This looks like it could be a longer track, maybe. It might even extend toward the Erin area. We have a report of damage there.”
A man loads broken tree branches into a wood chipper near Fergus, Ont. on Nov. 11, 2024 after a possible tornado was reported on Nov. 10, 2024. (Tom Podolec/CTV News)
Ontario’s “tornado corridor”
The latest investigation comes after the Northern Tornadoes Project confirmed a tornado hit the community of Ayr, Ont. in August. Initially investigators believed the storm was an EF1, but it was later upgraded to an EF2 tornado after researchers reviewed additional evidence.
Sills said twisters are common through this stretch of southern Ontario.
“From Windsor to north of Toronto, and then out to eastern Ontario, kind of north of [Highway] 401, that area is where we see a lot of our tornado activity in southern Ontario, our own little tornado corridor, and that’s focused there by the Great Lakes.”
It’s also not unusual to see them this late in the season.
“Way back in the 1960’s, there was a tornado that went through the Exeter region in December,” Sills said. “So even December isn’t out of the question. It’s just a question of whether the ingredients come together or not. Sometimes we get these low pressure systems coming through. They pump in that Gulf air and, even if it’s kind of out of season, and if the ingredients are there we can get a tornado.”
- With reporting by Ashley Bacon
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Netanyahu says Israeli forces have seized a buffer zone in the Golan Heights after Syrian unrest
Syrians poured into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire on Sunday after a stunning rebel advance reached the capital, putting an end to the Assad family's 50 years of iron rule but raising questions about the future of the country and the wider region.
Most Canadians would avoid buying U.S. products post-Trump tariff: Nanos survey
A majority of Canadians would be hesitant to buy U.S. goods in response to the proposed American tariff on products from Canada, according to a new survey.
Trump calls for 'immediate ceasefire' in Ukraine after meeting Zelenskyy in Paris
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, shortly after a meeting in Paris with French and Ukrainian leaders, claiming Kyiv 'would like to make a deal' to end the more than 1,000-day war.
Canadians turn domestic for holiday travel, with weak loonie discouraging U.S. trips
After turning abroad for holiday vacations last year, more Canadians are keeping their travel plans in-country this Christmas season due to squeezed budgets, lower domestic fares and a decisive end to the post-pandemic boom in overseas travel — and now a slumping currency.
Renovations underway to return one of the last Quonset-style theatres in Canada back to former glory
Community members in the small town of Coleman, Alta. are eagerly waiting for the grand re-opening of the historic Roxy Theatre now that renovations have started.
Search for UnitedHealthcare CEO's killer yields evidence, but few answers
As the search for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer goes on, investigators are reckoning with a tantalizing dichotomy: They have troves of evidence, but the shooter remains an enigma.
More than 900 people died in Jonestown. Guyana wants to turn it into a tourist attraction
Guyana is revisiting a dark history nearly half a century after U.S. Rev. Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers died in the rural interior of the South American country.
MP Jamil Jivani meets U.S. vice president-elect amid Trump's tariff threats
A Conservative member of Parliament has tapped a longtime friendship to connect with Donald Trump's inner circle as Canada prepares for the president-elect’s return to the White House next month amid threats of devastating tariffs.
Longer careers in hockey are linked to greater risk of CTE: study
The largest study ever done on the brains of male hockey players has found the odds of getting a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated traumatic brain injuries increases with each year played.