Forecasters say mostly calm skies are likely to continue into July…
If the sunny and dry weather keeps up, Ontario could have its first tornado-free June in 15 years.
Not since 2001 have the skies over Ontario been so quiet with most of the major weather events on the continent, such as heavy downpours, hail and damaging wind events tracking elsewhere.
“We’ve had a few of them, but certainly a much quieter season than normal so far,” Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson said Wednesday.
There has also been only one tornado so far this year, Coulson said, which comes as a surprise to forecasters since it came so early in the year.
On March 16, a tornado spawned west of Mount Forest, snapping trees and damaging a barn, while it wasn’t a monster storm, it was memorable.
“It broke a record for the earliest tornado we’ve ever had reported in Ontario,” Couslon said, noting the previous record was March 19, 1948 for a tornado that appeared in the Windsor area.
Coulson said forecasters thought they were in for a busy season, but things quickly cooled off in April, putting an end to any thunderstorm activity.
He said May and June have generated some thunderstorms in certain parts of the province, but nothing in the way of tornado activity.
“The weather pattern we’ve been going through over the next month doesn’t look like it’s changing until at least mid-July,” he said. “It does look like it’s going to be quiet overall certainly in terms of tornadic activity.”
By Colin Butler, CBC News Posted: Jun 29, 2016 1:09 PM ET Last Updated: Jun 30, 2016 7:42 AM ET
Picture: Weather experts say this year’s tornado season in Ontario has been a much quieter season than normal so far. (Brian Khoury/AP)
