Dash cam video of the Ottawa area Tornado that hit Sept 21

GTA Driver

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Iroad 3300CH, G1W-c, Mobius C, A119 v1 & v3, A118-c2

Plaza in which the dash cam took the video is I believe at the 20 second mark

 
Lisa is lucky- a car is one of the worst places to find yourself in during a tornado. Had it been much stronger this might have been her last video o_O Hope the recovery is going well up there, and my condolences to those affected by this.

Phil
 
some one need to lower the lens on the dashcam.
 
Hadn't seen this one, but there is a vid from a building on YT which is getting a nearly direct hit- you can see the complete rotation of swirling debris just outside the window. This was an EF-3 at it's worst intensity though most of the damage path was nearer EF-1. Amazing that nobody was directly killed by this tornado with such a densely populated area being affected.

Phil
 
I have been close to deadly or destructive tornadoes three in my life. I guess by close around 10 km or so. First time there was either warning on TV and mom got us all back and into the house to the basement, sent the other kids home and before that ran after my younger brother who was venturing down the street. Ten people were killed in that one

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-...y-tornado-that-destroyed-windsor-curling-club

. Amazing that nobody was directly killed by this tornado with such a densely populated area being affected.


Windsor is less populated city than Ottawa, but if you include Detroit across the river the overall area is more populated. Ten people died in this one in curling rink which was apparently poorly constructed. from https://windsorstar.com/news/local-...y-tornado-that-destroyed-windsor-curling-club
Coulson said that according to Environment Canada tornado experts, the deadly problem with the Windsor Curling Club was its construction.
The twister that hit the club was an Enhanced Fujita 1 tornado, he said. That means the peak winds ranged between 135 km/h and 175 km/h.
“One of the weaker ones,” Coulson said.
While they might take on damage, most buildings should be able to withstand an EF1 tornado. But Coulson said the club, constructed of mostly of large cinder blocks, had an overhang jutting from the roof.
“It appears that the tornado sort of got underneath the overhang and basically peeled off the roof on the curling club,” he said. “Then the cinder blocks underneath were not really secured to each other, so it was kind of a situation where the wall was reliant on the roof for support. Once the roof was torn off, the cinder block wall kind of collapsed. That’s what led to a number of those deaths and injuries as those cinder blocks collapsed into the curling club.”​
 
Apparently they rebuilt the city using using the "cyclone code" standard.
 
I've been in 2 F-0's and 1/4 mile away from an F-1. "Spooky" is the only word I can find to describe what it feels like when you realize it's not just a thunderstorm now and you have no idea how strong the tornado is that you are about to experience. "Terrified" isn't a strong enough word either when the full intensity hits you. I'm a certified Skywarn Storm Spotter (not a "chaser") and have done tons of reading and research on the subject. I've probably watched most of the YT tornado vids. Quite a few are from dashcams and car-mounted action cams, but not too many are like Lisa's in the OP here where they were right in the middle of it unintentionally. They often do hit hard and fast like we saw, and you don't have time to react at that point. Folks need to heed the warnings when they're issued and they need to understand that any large well-developed thunderstorm can produce a tornado without warning. Mobile homes and cars are the worst places to be in a strong tornado, with buildings having a wide unsupported roof span being next. Especially those with "lift slab" construction like all your Walmarts, Home Depots, and the like. Those lose all strength once the roof structure begins failing like the Curling Club spoken of above did.

Best to leave the dashcam running, get out of the car, and into better shelter till you're sure it's safe when a tornado is imminent. And remember what Ben Franklin said: "Some people are weather-wise, but most people are otherwise", and it's those 'otherwise' people who populate the casualty lists in tornadoes.

Phil
 
About 10 years ago one touched down about 1/4 mile from my house. Fortunately it was just a 'bounce' versus a long path. It was on the ground for less than a 1/2 mile totally in a wooded area so no building damage. It was really strange seeing trees laying on the ground less than 50 yards apart but pointing in opposite directions.
 
We just get waterspouts here, and small ones at that.


THis summer north of my birth town on Aarhus.

A little damage on old roofs but really nothing big,,,,, maybe due to us Danes stopped building in wood several 100 years ago.

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skypumpe_4.jpg


Normally it is F0 we get here, biggest hit was in 1962 where the town of Holstebro was hit by a unusual F2.

4898855-skypumpe-holstebro.jpg
 
been lucky myself. only one i've seen in person was a waterspout probably 5 miles offshore in mississippi. everyone just sat there at the traffic light watching it slowly bounce up and down off the water and then knock down a few trees at the end of one of the barrier islands. for once, nobody honked when it turned green because EVERYONE was watching the waterspout till it finally dissipated a few minutes later.

even during the many hurricanes and tropical storms i've been through (including harvey) i have yet to personally see a tornado. and now that i think about it, there wasn't much report of wind/tornado damage during harvey - it was just flooding.
 
According to NOAA and National Geographic, there are two types of water spouts, Tornadic waterspouts and Fair-weather waterspouts. From National geographic:
Tornadic waterspouts get their start as true tornadoes. Influenced by winds associated with severe thunderstorms, air rises and rotates on a vertical axis. Tornadic waterspouts are the most powerful and destructive type of waterspout.​
Fair-weather waterspouts, however, are much more common. Fair-weather waterspouts are rarely dangerous. The clouds from which they descend are not fast-moving, so fair-weather waterspouts are often static. Fair-weather waterspouts are associated with developing storm systems, but not storms themselves.​

My brother and I witnessed a fair weather one miles away from us while boating and fishing on the Lake Erie. When we heard someone on the radio mention it and when we looked to the South, we ran into each other in a mad panic removing all the fishing gear . When we lifted the gear, we noticed the spout was stationary, hardly moving. It was a fair weather one, the lake wasn't calm but hardly choppy either and there was no threat of thunderstorms. We usually are heading back to shore we know there are thunderstorms to the west of us. So we watched it for a few minutes, and it went away. But it scared the hell out us when we first saw it

The one we saw was much more tame than this one. It was just a vertical spout, with no bulb close to the bottom.

There was only the two of us so not that many lines or gear to remove. To give you an idea of the gear we had to either bring into the boat, goto to the 3:30 mark

 
Waterspouts are generally not dangerous except in a direct hit or after they come onto land. The weight of the water drawn into them keeps them from becoming strong and that keeps the winds generated by them weak too. When they come onto land they lose that weight and can intensify rapidly. I haven't studied them much beyond that but there's a YT vid of some folks who drove their boat up to one, and all around it, getting within about 100 feet of it with hardly any winds at all where they were. I guess I didn't save that link, but of the 180 or so 'likes' or subscriptions I have on YT, at least 140 are tornado-related, and several are direct hits up to EF-4 in strength.

The subject is fascinating to me and the power in a tornado can be insane. They can lift the concrete roof off of underground shelters, they can dig 2 feet into hard ground, they can strip several layers of asphalt off of roads, drive pieces of straw into trees, and grind a car's cast iron engine block into pea-sized chunks. They can totally destroy one house, yet hardly affect the next one over a hundred feet away. More to the point here, they can wad up a car into a ball just like we can do with tinfoil in our hands, and that can happen with an EF-3. And they have killed lots of people in cars at even EF-1 strength. Tornadoes follow no rules. They can move in any direction, reverse right back over where they just struck, loop around and hit again, go up hills and down valleys without leaving the ground, rise up and then drop down again further away. They can be stationary or approach at 70+MPH. Winds have been measured at 300+MPH in them, and that was above where the wind speeds are strongest. They can form in a single non-rotating thunderstorm cloud. They come in all shapes and sizes. They can last seconds or well over an hour. They can leave an unbroken path of destruction 235 miles long. They can be just a few yards wide or up to 2.6 miles wide. They've carried a man almost 1/4 mile in the air who survived. They can occur singly or in groups, and one storm cell can spawn new tornadoes repeatedly in it's path. One tornado can have a dozen subvortices (mini tornadoes) inside or outside of it or both. One tornado can do $2.8 billion in damage. Entire towns have been completely destroyed by a tornado. There's no other single thing in nature with such a wide variety of faces and effects. And if you've ever been in one, it's something you will never forget.

Phil
 
There was a fishing charter operator with two boats and he was the guy who alerted everyone (there were very boats out at the time) about it. He claims he lost a bimini top the previous year and therefore alerted other boats. Wasn't the fear of god in his voice or the advice for everyone to head in. Just alerted us. He stayed out as did we. I knew nothing about them at the time and figured they were destructive but that fair weather one was NOT very intimidating after all.

Still it gave me a minute of excitement in my life I will never forget.
 
There was a fishing charter operator with two boats and he was the guy who alerted everyone (there were very boats out at the time) about it. He claims he lost a bimini top the previous year and therefore alerted other boats. Wasn't the fear of god in his voice or the advice for everyone to head in. Just alerted us. He stayed out as did we. I knew nothing about them at the time and figured they were destructive but that fair weather one was NOT very intimidating after all.

Still it gave me a minute of excitement in my life I will never forget.
The one I saw in Mississippi was over 30 years ago but I still remember it well. It had been storming on and off all day and there was a good bit of east-West movement of the funnel (it was to our south), but since we could actually see the barrier islands off the beach, that meant there was no rain for several miles in that direction. I do remember it being completely overcast at the time, but not really dark. It was the middle of the afternoon.

My 6 year old son is obsessed with extreme weather and loves watching the storm chaser videos on YouTube and the weather channel. So as a result I've learned a bit more about the storms myself.
 
We get a few in Western Lake Erie and Lake St Clair (Lake east of Detroit) that are large relatively shallow bodies of water. In August, Lake Eries' average temperature around Cleveland can be 75 f. I have seen it as high as 81F on the North shore of lake Erie. In Late august, early September, in the mornings, the water can be warmer than the air, particularly on days which are overcast.
 
Got a little spooky here earlier. Severe T-storms in the area, and a spotter-confirmed tornado in the cell headed my way about 20 miles out. I got soaked dropping the storm shutter on the picture window. The tornado dissipated quickly and the cell was weaker when it hit. Very close lightning strike and heavy rain was all I got. Not complaining.

Forgot link: https://www.wyff4.com/article/tornado-warning-issued-in-two-upstate-counties/23498979

Phil
 
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