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
BREAKING Donald Trump picks former U.S. congressman Pete Hoekstra as ambassador to Canada
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has nominated former diplomat and U.S. congressman Pete Hoekstra to be the American ambassador to Canada.
Genetic evidence backs up COVID-19 origin theory that pandemic started in seafood market
A group of researchers say they have more evidence to suggest the COVID-19 pandemic started in a Chinese seafood market where it spread from infected animals to humans. The evidence is laid out in a recent study published in Cell, a scientific journal, nearly five years after the first known COVID-19 outbreak.
This is how much money you need to make to buy a house in Canada's largest cities
The average salary needed to buy a home keeps inching down in cities across Canada, according to the latest data.
'My two daughters were sleeping': London Ont. family in shock after their home riddled with gunfire
A London father and son they’re shocked and confused after their home was riddled with bullets while young children were sleeping inside.
Smuggler arrested with 300 tarantulas strapped to his body
Police in Peru have arrested a man caught trying to leave the country with 320 tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants strapped to his body.
Boissonnault out of cabinet to 'focus on clearing the allegations,' Trudeau announces
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced embattled minister Randy Boissonnault is out of cabinet.
Baby dies after being reported missing in midtown Toronto: police
A four-month-old baby is dead after what Toronto police are calling a “suspicious incident” at a Toronto Community Housing building in the city’s midtown area on Wednesday afternoon.
Sask. woman who refused to provide breath sample did not break the law, court finds
A Saskatchewan woman who refused to provide a breath sample after being stopped by police in Regina did not break the law – as the officer's request was deemed not lawful given the circumstances.
Parole board reverses decision and will allow families of Paul Bernardo's victims to attend upcoming parole hearing in person
The families of the victims of Paul Bernardo will be allowed to attend the serial killer’s upcoming parole hearing in person, the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) says.