Drone imagery from the Northern Tornadoes Project shows uprooted and downed trees after a storm tore through Meadow Lake Provincial Park on June 29. (supplied/Northern Tornadoes Project)

By Tyler Marr

TORNADO TRACKERS

‘Event of the summer’ says researcher on Meadow Lake Provincial Park tornadoes

Aug 27, 2019 | 2:06 PM

For David Sills, the weather system that tore through part of Meadow Lake Provincial Park over the Canada Day long weekend was the event of the summer for tornadoes.

The executive director with the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) said the storm was very intense and part of a larger system that produced at least eight other tornadoes over two days in Alberta and Saskatchewan, including an EF2.

“All in all it was pretty big,” he said.

Three people were transported to hospital following the storm on June 29 that flipped trailers and uprooted trees in its wake. Nearly two months out, work continues to recover from the damage.

The NTP is a partnership between Western University, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and ImpactWx, that wants to discover and decode every tornado in Canada, especially in rural and remote segments of the country.

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The agency dispatched a team of researchers to document the damage from two tornadoes Environment Canada said skirted Murray Doell Campground and Laumans Landing northwest of Goodsoil. One measured wind speeds upwards of 170 km/h.

Researchers conducted ground and drone surveys of the site between July 1 and 3. Satellite data and imagery was provided by a private firm. They worked alongside crews from Environment Canada to collect data.

Drone imagery of Laumans Landing after a storm tore through on Canada Day long weekend in 2019. (supplied/Northern Tornadoes Project)

A review of the satellite imagery, according to the NTP website, revealed a tornado track with an estimated path to be 10 kilometres long that caused tree damage north of the lake before tracking through Murray Doell.

“What started as a narrow tornado track, really expanded as it got to the campground and the damage got more widespread as it got to the end of the lake,” Sills said of the findings. “We are still trying to sort out if the damage was mostly due to a tornado or if it was a combination of tornadic damage and downburst damage.”

The NTP plans to have an aircraft perform an aerial survey of the area shortly to obtain high-resolution data to allow the team to better sort out what damage was caused by a tornado and what was the result of a downburst.

“We still have some work to do to try and sort out exactly what happened there. It is a pretty complicated case and we know there were tornadoes involved it is just we haven’t quite decided on how much of that damage is attributed to the tornadoes,” he said.

Two tornadoes that tore through Meadow Lake Provincial Park on June 29 uprooted trees. (supplied/Northern Tornadoes Project)

The NTP started as a unique way to track tornadoes in Ontario in 2017. It has evolved over the years, Sills said, especially around where the investigations have led them.

The inaugural year, a majority of the activity was in Quebec, which included 11 tornadoes in one day in June. The following year, activity peaked near the end of the season in Ontario and Quebec. But 2019 brought the team to Western Canada, with much of the activity happening in Alberta and the areas abutting the province.

“We haven’t seen much activity in other areas,” he said. “That has been the story of the project for the summer so far; ‘OK, what is happening next in Alberta.’”

Two tornadoes that tore through Meadow Lake Provincial Park on June 29 uprooted trees. (supplied/Northern Tornadoes Project)

Sills anticipates it will be a few months before they can put their finger on what exactly happened in Meadow Lake Provincial Park.

The findings, Sills said, will be used to help build a better understanding of how many tornadoes occur across Canada, where they touch down, help enhance forecasting and heighten the awareness of tornado risk. This will lead to improved construction practices and resiliency to the storms.

“Even some forecasters aren’t aware tornadoes occur in certain areas because they have not had the data in the past,” he said. “This helps the public perception of tornadoes and anticipation.”

—

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr