F2 Tornado Devastates Midland Ontario

pics @ 1:14 On June 23rd, 2010 just after 6 pm a fairly large F2 tornado took the town of Midland Ontario by surprise causing a lot of damage. miraculously there were no fatalities and injuries were mostly cuts bruises and broken bones.

the system was moving at 50km/h and had at one point a damage path of 650m in width. during the time it was over Midland it was obscured by heavy rains and the severe weather advisory had only been issued 12 minutes earlier.

these are my pictures and my coworkers and my recollection of the events

in the comments below do you think southern Ontario (which averages 11 tornadoes a year, and close to 30 in 2009) should have a better warning system. this is the second tornado this year to take a town completely by surprise. your thoughts?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• F2
• Midland
• Ontario
• Canada
• slideshow
• Trailer park
• Smith's Trailer camp
• destruction
• multi vortex tornado
• out of the blue
• photography
• severe weather
• wind

[TenshinoYamiChan]

Wow that was awesome, great work on covering it for those of us who were busy ducking at the time and so much luckier than so many others. Thank whoever watched out to make sure no one lost their life.

[theissk]

@TenshinoYamiChan thanks :)

[TheViciousCyclist]

I don’t think a better warning system exists; even with all the technology and advancements in weather monitoring, weather is very hard to predict. If warings start to become common, people will get used to them and think nothing of it if nothing actually happens. Midland was hit by “shit happens” as was leamington. Also Midland is the only town in Ontario that has a disaster response plan, perhaps others whould follow suit.

[theissk]

@TheViciousCyclist the warning systems i was thinking about were like what the south has with tornado sirens and more trained spotters across ontario. if i knew how to become one myself i'd love to be a part of it, the main part that bugs me with the surprise factor and our current systems is that unless you're in tune with the weather warnings you never know what's coming, and those sirens let everyone know to take cover regardless of what their doing or where they are.

[BubbaBodecker]

The town has just installed warning sirens! They are not saying where, only that they have now been installed!

[Rahkayelle]

@theissk I agree with you. If we had sirens or better warning systems, it might be easier to know when a tornado is going to happen. I remember driving home from work one day and there was a tornado warning, but I had no clue about it. I knew we were under a severe thunderstorm watch, but that was it. When I got on the 401 and saw the green clouds, I knew that a tornado could happen. Luckily the tornado didn't come, but still, just not knowing is what's scary.

[Rahkayelle]

Spooky song for a spooky event! I don't live far from Midland!

[Rahkayelle]

@eliandaussie Omg that is so scary!

[eliandaussie]

funell went right over my city and i had to walk home because skewl let out and i was all alone while the funell was passing over my head

[TheViciousCyclist]

@theissk Perhaps sirens could be effective, but for our area with the amount of severe weather we see it's hard to justify implementing such expensive systems. But I do see where you’re coming from, having better trained personnel in weather monitoring and tacking warnings may occur before serious events envelope.