A research group out of Western University says Canada’s poor record of predicting tornadoes must be improved to save lives.
The Northern Tornadoes Project findings come after Environment Canada issued a single tornado warning for a town northwest of Montreal on July 24th despite four twisters occurring that day.
The group is pushing for more tornado warnings to be broadcast, saying warnings to cellphones has certainly saved lives.
A researcher says a line of intense, fast-moving windstorms in Ontario and Quebec in 2022 was eventually blamed for 16 deaths, because people couldn’t get out of the way fast enough.
The director of prediction services for Quebec and Ontario at Environment Canada, says weaker tornadoes are more challenging to predict.
According to their website, the Northern Tornadoes Project, founded at Western University in 2017 with the support of social impact fund ImpactWX, aims to better detect tornado occurrence throughout Canada, improve severe and extreme weather understanding and prediction, mitigate against harm to people and property, and investigate future implications due to climate change.
Photo courtesy the Northern Tornadoes Project.
