News DetailElie, Manitoba tornado upgraded to Canada's first F5!
Posted At: September 19, 2007 @ 3:14 AM
Posted By: Reed Timmer
Related Categories: Tornadoes
According to Dave Carlsen of Environment Canada, recently analyzed home video of the Elie, MB tornado on June 22, 2007 has resulted in an upgrade of the small, yet damaging tornado to F5 intensity -- a first for Canada. According to the Winnipeg Sun and CBC News, the video of concern shows an "almost-intact house being thrown several hundred metres through the air", and a large van being lofted high into the air. Here are some links to relevant news stories; the Winnipeg Sun is planning a more extensive article about this story tomorrow.
http://winnipegsun.com/News/Manitoba/2007/09/18/4506223.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/09/18/tornado.html
Contributing to the F5 rating was the very slow motion of the tornado, increasing the residence time of the winds over structures in its path. The Elie tornado was on the ground for 30 minutes, but had a path length of only 5 km! Thankfully, no one was killed or injured from this tornado, but 19 people were left homeless in Elie. This tornado was 1 of 13 "confirmed" violent tornadoes in recorded history for Canada (pers. comm. Simon E.), which is likely far under-estimated, but still more than the 8 that is widely reported by Canadian Media.
Shown below are some widely-viewed videos of the Elie tornado, mostly from local residents (Sorry to the regular visitors these videos have been posted so many times on previous blog entries!). The second video below quite possibly could be the video that resulted in the rating upgrade.
http://winnipegsun.com/News/Manitoba/2007/09/18/4506223.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/09/18/tornado.html
Contributing to the F5 rating was the very slow motion of the tornado, increasing the residence time of the winds over structures in its path. The Elie tornado was on the ground for 30 minutes, but had a path length of only 5 km! Thankfully, no one was killed or injured from this tornado, but 19 people were left homeless in Elie. This tornado was 1 of 13 "confirmed" violent tornadoes in recorded history for Canada (pers. comm. Simon E.), which is likely far under-estimated, but still more than the 8 that is widely reported by Canadian Media.
Shown below are some widely-viewed videos of the Elie tornado, mostly from local residents (Sorry to the regular visitors these videos have been posted so many times on previous blog entries!). The second video below quite possibly could be the video that resulted in the rating upgrade.
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How ironic that Environment Canada is relying on home video to make this historic determination.
Just after the Elie tornado, Environment Canada had come out and chided the citizens who had captured the storms: "This is not about getting the best YouTube video. ... It's almost what I've called "STORM P0RN," David Phillips, one of Environment Canada's top weather experts, told CBC News.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/06/26/tornado-viz.html?ref=rss
Now they are using that very video in their scientific analysis, in order to verify that it was indeed the first Canadian F5 on record.
Hey Joe, haven't heard from you in a bit. Good to see you again.
Brady, make sure you have gas in your truck tomorrow and be ready to drive west!
Gotchya Andrew!! I gotta work til 6 Tomorrow!!=( but I have a half a tank now, just in case!!
Great to hear from ya Joe!! We were a lil worried!!
I'm off to work!! I'll check in ASAP!!
Congrats on the F5 Reed!!
Good luck again James!! =)
I figure the tornado stats would be higher up in the north would it not be for the colder temps. Before you tube I had only seen torn footage on tv occasionally, the interesting thing is the number of tornado involved dreams I have had before any videos etc... these are "common" supposedly. I don't know it's just weird.
heys guys im back from school anything going on??
haha i agree with you joe...its like david suzuki here in canada. he's probably canadas most passionate advocate for nature and global warming, but 10 years ago fishing off the queen charlotte islands off the BC coast he was caught poaching. same kinda deal with david phillips slamming tornado videos, then using one to determine a rating. nothing worse then a hypocrite! anyways, the western nebraska looks interesting today, and the dakotas are looking good tomorrow...so far.
Hey guys.
I'm back in Shanghai now. Wipha smacked into China south of Wenzhou and I got nothing but heavy rain and the occasional squall. The city got a really lucky break which is great news for the locals. Still it caused the evacuation of more than 2 million people.
It's the busts which make the good chases good. I'm sure it won't be long before the next monster forms!
Thanks for the update James.
Glad to hear your safe James..
I just got word that the second tornado video posted above was the one that resulted in the upgrade to F5.
I'm guessing the above comment had good intentions - maybe he was just trying to prevent the mass chaos that happens in OK when a tornado touches down...it's like a symphony concert...but with traffic jams everywhere.
The value of observation in science should never be under-estimated.
It's the power of technology, baby. We, the citizens, are now distributed sensors for the scientific world and the media. There are cameras everywhere... videocams, webcams, 7-11 cams, even in cellphones.
We don't hear much anymore about Bigfoot, UFOs, alien abductions and the like in this day and age. That's because with videocams everywhere, something like that couldn't happen without someone getting a good video of it. Even L.A. cops can't beat up suspects in peace anymore. And now with the internet, especially youtube, the results get broadcast immediately.
It's a very cool era to live in.
Someday there'll be numerous chase-cams on the road during outbreak days, and we can watch it all live on the internet in several windows.
WOW Reed!!!!!! An F5. dos CA use the EF scale?
Caleb, why aren't you in school??
No, Canada has not adopted the EF scale yet.
Here's a nice story ^
LOL Joe I had a eraly Relese because the stupid 5th graders are going to pine mouten. If i didn't get held back in 3rd grade not last year but the year before I'DE GO!!!!!!!!! they are staying there for 3 days my crush is going to!!!!!!!!
Well, Caleb, you're just going to have to man up and tough this one out. Although if you got out of school early I don't see anything you have to complain about.
Did you see the latest Day 1 tornadic outlook? It looks like AJ may get some action perhaps.
If I remember correctly, the original wind estimate had the Elie tornado only 1 MPH (when converted to MPH from km/H) under F-5 anyway. At the time I thought they were just trying to be very conservative, as if they did not *want* to give it an F-5.
Caleb just think, you can spend all day on TV.net & youtube watching tornado clips. Those guys aren't going to be doing THAT at "Pine Mountain" (I guess that's what it is, right?!) :P
Yeah ime still mad that my crush is going.
hey guys anything going on??
joe im starting to believe that the report you showed me about that guys using the sun to predict the weather was right!!! weve had a massive drop in the temperature over the past 3 days and winds have started to pick upswell from arounf 2mph to 17 mph
Hey Tim, glad to hear you're getting some wind. Whatever you do, don't believe guys who make long-range forecasts by using the sunspots! There are a lot of charlatans out there. 2225
lol yeh i know not to believe in stuff like that just thought was a bit odd how this was happening lol....but actually now thinking about it we usually get strong wind arthis time of year i wonder if he could just be quessing from past years lol ( to completly contridict myself lol ;) )
Even 100 years from now, when we have supercomputers that have 1,000,000,000 times the processing capability and gigajigawigahertz of power, I doubt we could predict exact weather out further than X number of days. Weather is just too complex and has too many variables. Just IMO. Watch out for guys who claim they can do things with "secret formulas." Normally they are whackjobs who are looking for attention. Hey, I could be wrong!
Joe remember when i lied about that tornado?
nah joe i totally agree with you.....look at what we know about tornadoes not a lot from the amount of years weve been studing and asing them and even as the computers get better we still dont get a lot of information back...... i showed this to brady yesterday but you weren't here its a chase i did on a storm about 3 miles away from my hme have a look if you want just a short video wisome pictures click my name for the link......
mesoscale discussion up for eastern colorado and western kansas...
...as well as a tornado watch...that cell west of dodge city, kansas looks intense!
Yes Caleb, I remember the first AND LAST time you concocted a tornado emergency. Tim, it looks like your future of making videos is ahead of you!
Dang I hope there is a fall season coming up and Reed can get out there and nail a big one for us. It's been awhile since we had a good tube video here
thanks alot joe!!!
yeh could do with something been quiet for a while now :(
something should produce here...theres enough instability and definetly enough shear...its looking like the cell west of dodge city wants to start hooking...
That cell west of Dodge City is almost surrounding Garden City (home of AJ). I'm sure AJ appreciates sitting through his Home Ec and Government classes today.
Yeah, take a look at that Kansas stuff - and AJ IS IN SCHOOL! AAAAAAAA!!! I'm saving the radar image for him! :D
haha no doubt...i wish i was where he is, thats for sure! i read a severe t-storm report of the dodge city storm...golf ball sized hail and 60+mph winds...
Hi all,
Hate to horn in on the fun in Kansas right now. Just wondering Reed about tomorrow's set up in South Dakota and Western MN. Have you had a chance to look at models yet? Looks like it could get really interesting around here, if the cap breaks in the afternoon. I'm thinking this set up might actually tempt you if you weren't so busy, lol. Any thoughts?
TORNADOES...HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND
GUSTS TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE
AREAS.
THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 65 STATUTE
MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 40 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
BURLINGTON COLORADO TO 55 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF HILL CITY
KANSAS. FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED
WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU2).
REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH
AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR
THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS
AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS.
what a shame he is at school he may of been able to get some goodies lol :P
but i think that was before it split though...
Hey guys i think that storm SE of Garden City is hooking...could very well see a warning here soon
NROT on gr2 is showing a vertical tube
You saw that split too brandon? I was just looking at that
Tommorow looks AMAZING,
SPC mentions a possible upgrade to MOD or HIGH for tommorow.
Those of you with GR3, hit the "polling" button (looks like a stack of paper up on the left-hand side) and watch this stuff blow up from one cell! Cool!
I see the split too, and you can see clockwise motion on the southern piece!
once these storms move into more intense SRH i think things will get more exciting...
according to the SRH index vaild at 2100UTC, the more favourable SRH is towards northwest kansas...
heidi are you looking at the cell over dodge city with gr3?? or is it a different one?
lookout scott city!.....=\ that cells looking dangerous. you guys on grlevel...what does it look like?!!? i havent bothered getting it yet because im canadian, but it would be fun to have doing this virtual chasing...
Click my name for the possabilaties for tornado today
Hey Caleb, I think you might want to stay away from some other "weather websites" I've seen you hanging around. Know what I mean?
Brandon, that cell over Scott City does look very nasty but there is not a whole lot of rotation indicated on the base velocity or SRV. But that could change.
The cell sitting JUST east of Garden City looks pretty good right now. It could happen!
Purty good hail signature on that one anyways.
im off now guys to tierd too even try tonight and it is soooo anoying cause something is actually kicking off lol....hopyou have a good one see ya!!!!
I HAVE SEVERE WEATHER!!! AAAAAAAAAA
Tornado watch, the whole bit :D:D I love it.
That cell is sitting next to my house basically! It looks evil. slashfklasf. Digital camera, where are you??
There you are, AJ!!
Joe, did you get the emails I sent? There were two of them? I hate gmail. gag.
go on AJ go get us the goods lol :P
right now i really am off speak to you all tomorrow hope it goes well for you AJ :D
Tomarrow definitally sound like it **COULD** be crazy for Eastern SD and Western MN, kinda goes to show about what you guys were talking about earlier in regards to how scetchy forcasting is and probably will remain, even 24 hours out.
If conditions warrant I will be chasing tomarrow. No question about it.
haha. You're absolutely right Heidi. I had my Government class today. lol
Fortunately, the room had large windows. :D
Lets hope it doesn't almost blow your house over like last time, huh Travis!
AJ, we got to see a storm split & rotate clockwise. See what you miss when you stay in school?!
I know, I miss all the fun :( Oh well, now it's sitting in my neighborhood, so I'm a happy camper
...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 430 PM CDT
FOR NORTHWESTERN GRAY AND CENTRAL FINNEY COUNTIES...
AT 410 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO
INDICATE A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING QUARTER SIZE
HAIL...AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS
LOCATED 6 MILES NORTH OF PIERCEVILLE...MOVING NORTH AT 20 MPH.
AT 402 PM CDT...59 MPH WINDS WERE REPORTED AT THE GARDEN CITY
AIRPORT.
IN ADDITION...CONTINUOUS CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING IS OCCURRING WITH
THIS STORM. MOVE INDOORS IMMEDIATELY! LIGHTNING IS NATURES NUMBER ONE
KILLER. REMEMBER...IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER...YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO
BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.
Click thy name for the best picture I've seen all week. lol
Heidi, got the emails! Velly intellesting! Will reply later. Got to make like a supercell and split! You guys keep an eye on these storms so they don't pull off any funny business. Later
yes AJ your area is right in the sweet spot. I went out last night for the couple that fired up around McPherson but no big storms....Hope you get some good pics.
Heidi, you don't happen to have that radar loop saved, do you??! lol Clockwise= insane!
Hey if it ALMOST blows over my house. That would be perfect!! I wouldent have to drive anywhere!
Hey, a fellow Kansas, finally! ;) Are you new to TV.net Monty?
I don't know how to save the loops. It is probably some easy thing that I have yet to discover - someone tell me how if it is.
Here are a few images from GR that I have saved though:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w226/thefurmouse/gardencityhook.png
That's when it was looking pretty interesting on CR 248. You weren't home from school yet
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w226/thefurmouse/gardencityradar.png
That's the one where it was rotating clockwise (which you of course cannot see). The one on the southern end was doing it.
It looks like that cell is weakening a lot right now.
No AJ I've been here for about six months but with my work I don't get to post that often but I read the posts everyday. Good to see another Kansan on here :)
Man i was watching twister insanity on joost beta....good stuff ^_^ if you told them send us the beta, thank you
Heidi, Why?
Can I have the link to the "Weather Website"
Cool Monty. Hope to see you on more often hopefully!
Oohh, thanks much Heidi! btw, it was Joe who mentioned me in Government class, not you, sorry.
No Prob. Someone Random
Wow I love how strong the rotation is and how close they got to it. See next summer I'm going to try that on my bike. Just not get tooo close hehe.
Kenny!! You should've been down in Kansas, you could've been out on a bike chase!!
Well guys, looks like all the excitement is over for tonite:( Storm has weakened alot, and all the severe warnings have been cancelled. The watch is still in effect, but I doubt that something will spring up after this.
I'm out for a bit, I'll try to be back on later!! Peace!
That Cell has a lot of out-flow!!!
Guys go to this link and click twister rips through neighborhood.
Hey all!! Just got home from the shop!! Whats new??
I'll be ready as much as I can to roll tomorrow!! I just have to work til 6!! I might be able to get out a lil early if storms start!!
Hey everyone, everything looks interesting for the next few days...i just skimmed through the posts above. So i may be outta the loop a bit.
For those of you who didnt see the pics i got out of Bradys lightning vid here they are:
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc316/bentc214/Brady2.jpg
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc316/bentc214/Brady3.jpg
^VIDEO CREDIT TO BRADY, EDITING CREDIT TO ME. I suck at watermarks. The first pic is the original crop, and the second one is the original crop+enhanced lighting.
Reed u have my permission to post those if u want, may want to ask Brady.
In response to Bradys post above my first one: Dont be afraid to tell a few white lies.
For example, I have told all my employers that i am a Severe weather enthusiast(True), and also a member of Emergency Services(True), I've told them that if there is a tornado within eyesight i will walk out and leave because i am a first responder(FALSE). After i say all that , they have pretty much say its ok, and that they will try and let me go for severe weather events.
^Hope u understand that mumble jumble.
HAHA!! That's Great Ben!! There will be more than plenty of employees to werk and I'll probably have OT anyway!!
my boss calls me for weather updates!! hehe
My current job is very flexible for me because i am running my girlfriends family business at a packaging and shipping business, if theres anything i need to do or leave early her dad will come in and close for me, plus they all know i am a weather freak and a tazewell county Emergency services member. So its easy for me for now, however the business is for sale on the market right now, so i dont know how long that will last.
after looking at the almanacs and forecasts i can say that the last hot stormy two years may be a trend.
This winter LOTs of snow followed by another hot summer.
So again lots of heat and humidity for big super cells in canada.
Soon canada will soon be the hot spot for chasing in the summer.
Anyone with GR3 should go to Amarillo TX radar and load the current loop.
I may be wrong, but is that a gust front coming up from the SE side of that line?
Unfortunately this means that we'll all, more then likely, be disappointed by our Manitoba chase season next year. You just can't beat a massive rash of F3+ tornadoes in a weekend haha.
Quiet night!!
Sure is Brady. I'm so bored. Found 5$ on the ground lol. I bought some chips ^^
lol i'm such a pig :P
Sure is Brady. I'm so bored. Found 5$ on the ground lol. I bought some chips ^^
lol i'm such a pig :P
Really quiet!! I could use $5 right about now!!
Really Really quiet!! Ight I'm gonna hit the sack!! I'll check here before I go to work tomorrow! See what ya guys think of the weather!!
Hey AJ,
Did you see anything near GCK today? Storms looked like garbage on radar, but that doesn't mean jack because of that W KS magic!
Anyone coming for the fun today?
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1probotlk_1200_torn.gif
Appears the threat today is VERY conditional, and the giant MCS moving through right now is probably not helping the severe chances later.
10% hatched tornado area just got changed to 5%. Doh.
Well since I am talking to myself I'll keep it up, lol.
Tail end charlie in the MCS just went nuts, has a hook and is tor warned!! A morning tornado?! Yikes.
lol andrew keep itt up im at school at the moment will be on again in about half an hour and really are there any warnings at all??
Not talking to yourself.
...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 845 AM CDT FOR YELLOW
MEDICINE AND SOUTHERN LAC QUI PARLE COUNTIES...
AT 818 AM CDT...DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO INDICATE A SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO. THE SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM WAS LOCATED 3 MILES WEST OF BURR...OR ABOUT OVER
CANBY...AND MOVING NORTHEAST AT 25 MPH.
OTHER LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE PROVIDENCE...ST LEO...CANBY
AND BURR.
WHEN A TORNADO WARNING IS ISSUED BASED ON DOPPLER RADAR...IT MEANS
THAT STRONG ROTATION HAS BEEN DETECTED IN THE STORM. A TORNADO MAY
ALREADY BE ON THE GROUND...OR IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP SHORTLY.
THIS STORM IS ALSO CAPABLE OF PRODUCING NICKEL SIZE HAIL.
Yes Tim, there really are. A tornado warning on a cell with really good looking rotation in western MN. It even just took a right turn! Wow.
wow its looking good then will just get my gr3 up and running doesn't brady live around there or near there??
Brady is in Duluth. Pretty far away.
Hehe!! yeah Tim!! probably about 200+ miles from here!!
FYI Duluth is right at the very western tip of Lake Superior!!
I brought my Inet to work so hopefully I can stay up to date!! My boss says I can go early if I need to! =)
I just hope this MCS doesn't wreck it for later!!
Has anyone heard from Reed lately? I was hoping he'd have his 2 cents for us!!
ah rite lol :P..... well lets hope something happens maybe reed will go...
llol hey brady hows work lol??
sorry guys but have to do this lol .... 100th comment :D
Oh, not bad Tim!! 5 guys here to run a 3 stall shop, so I can just sit back and watch the noobs work while I drink coffee and watch radar!! lol I sound like Dark Helmet on Spaceballs! " I always drink coffee when I watch radar!! hehe
It's only 46f (7.8c) outside!!
lol cool sounds good then lol..... wow thats cold spose there isn't anything going on where you are then?
How do I fix this zoom issue with GR3 on my laptop??
This MCS is at our back door right now!!
another question now sorry....what are MCS?
A mesoscale convective system!! I'll let Andrew or someone with a little more knowledge explain exactly what that is!!
No need for sorry Tim!! Most of my learning has been from others questions like that!! These guys here seem to like the questions, and do a great job of answering them!!
It's a big BLOB of thunderstorms!
lol thanks brady and thanks andrew:D..... lol the reason why i say sorry i cause i feel aif i should know more before i start talking to people who really enjoy this and know loads lol..... i really enjoy it aswell just started a bit late lol
Well put Andrew!! Mesoscale means 100+km does it not??
Does anyone know what I mean by "zoom issue"??
here's a couple screen captures of the big one this morning before it weakened and when it was tor warned. I can't believe this was this intense at 8 in the morning.
C:\Documents and Settings\andrew\My Documents\My Pictures\20070920_135207_black2.png
C:\Documents and Settings\andrew\My Documents\My Pictures\20070920_134336_black.png
Brady, are you talking about HOW to zoom in GRlevel? You should just be able to click on the little microscope thingy icon, and then draw a box around whatever you want to zoom in on, just like they do on TV. Sorry if that didn't help any.
INTENSE storm in SW MN!
I'd say its tornado chances are minimal since I highly doubt that it is surface based. Although if the mesocyclone is strong enough I guess it's possible.
I'll take a look at the models here shortly for later today.
Anyone thinking of chasing?
yeah, it works! it's just slow as hell!! my brothers laptop is the same way!! my desktop works fine!
Get a new laptop.
rotflmao
hey reed....i might be off out later we have had a few storms go over today nothing much but we usually get the best storms around 5 o'clock will keep my eye out....
you planning on chasing at all then? anything you like the look of?
Reed! I'm stuck at work til later!! if anything chaseable can fire up I'll be on it!!
Whats your thought of that cloud I seen the other night!
Could it have been a funnel and if not, what was it?? if ya read near the end of the last blog, you'll see my comments!!
I should be able to get outta here by 4 er so!! hopefully something can happen!! I've got my eye on this crap comin my way too!!
new blog guys!!!