Storm Chasing in Eastern Ontario

It's not exactly Kansas here, so I was surprised to learn that some Ontarion's have taken up storm chasing as a hobby, for most of the province is not exactly thought to be the tornado belt, but nevertheless, Connor Mockett lives here in Eastern Ontario, and he does identify as a storm chaser. He declares so right on his Facebook page.

I had never heard of him until Tuesday evening when we had a humdinger of a storm that included a red tornado warning blaring over our phones.

one of Connor's fb photos from Tuesday
somewhere during this storm chase

Danica was wondering where exactly the tornado was spotted, bit the notifications was probably just informing us that the conditions were right. Indeed, our town was mentioned as being in the storm path, and we found that Connor had been out chasing it "For the first time in my entire chasing career, I can say that was the first time I was terrified of how strong the lightning was. Driving down Dwyer Hill towards HWY 7 from Kinburn was easily the craziest lightning drive I have ever experienced, I seriously thought my car was going to get struck. The cloud to ground bolts were so incredibly intense. I'll never forget it."

This is one of his clip from his chase.

 

He arrived here in Carleton Place where he ended his chase.

I am surprised to learn that "Ontario averages 18 tornadoes a year and they usually occur between May and September. That number, over the 30-year average, has earned Ontario the crown as the tornado capital of the country." 

They mainly occur within a corridor that stretches from Windsor to Ottawa. More occur in Southwestern Ontario, but more are beginning to occur here in the Ottawa Valley. From what I can gather, most do not reach category 4 or 5 stage.

Some stats from the American Tornado Alley (from AI and/or Wikipedia)

Kansas averages 81 tornadoes per year, 2nd only to Texas who averages 135 per year. Average annual number of tornadoes per 10,000 square miles per state between 2004 and 2023. Kansas averages 10 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles per year, which is tied for 3rd place with Iowa and Illinois

The states with the highest number of F5 and EF5 rated tornadoes since data was available in 1950 are Alabama and Oklahoma, each with seven tornadoes. Iowa, Kansas, and Texas each are tied for second-most with six The state with the highest number of F5 and EF5 tornadoes per square mile, however, was Iowa. Since 1950, the state with the most violent (EF4/F4+) tornadoes is Oklahoma with 68. 

I was once out in a tornado, or very close to where it hit in Canada's Tornado Alley by Windsor and Sarnia. It was at a field day event at my high school. The event had to be cancelled in progress, and we soon discovered that nearby houses had been flattened. This included the house of two sisters that I taught. One sister was home at the time and was just dragged into the cellar by her brother seconds before the house was levelled above them. I know this because she wrote a composition about the event in the English class that I taught.

PS: Shauna reports that Connor Mockett has chased the region in the USA Tornado Alley, but he is a new contact for me.