Sunday, June 6, 2010


Environment Canada has confirmed an F1 tornado touched down in Essex County in southwestern Ontario early Sunday morning.

Tornadoes are ranked on the Fujita scale, with F0 being the lowest and F5 the highest. An F1 tornado carries winds up to 180 km/h, which can uproot trees and overturn cars, evidence of which could be seen all over Leamington, Ont., after the twister touched.

On Monday, the town of approximately 30,000 residents on Lake Erie remained under a state of emergency.

Falling trees crushed cars and landed on houses, causing at least 13 homes to be condemned, but town officials expected that number to climb.

Mayor John Adams estimated damages in the millions of dollars, and said the town will appeal to the provincial government for emergency aid.

Damage path length of about two kilometres in the area, and some of that path length looks like tornado damage, and some of it looks like straight-line wind damage," said David Rogers from Environment Canada.