Grey County Tornado
Ahead of the main cold front, a separate storm formed into a supercell southwest of Williamsford in Grey County, likely triggered by the aging squall line further west. Then, at about 5:50pm, a funnel cloud touched down about 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) southwest of Williamsford. Only sporadic tree damage took place at this point. The storm was high-based, and there was a large gap between the tornado and the core of the storm which was consistent through much of the tornado’s life. The wall cloud was large and showed clear signs of rotation.
As the tornado passed through town, it was large and messy, and divided into multiple vortices shortly after. The collective width of the damage path was about 400 metres (440 yards) wide and extensive debris filled the air. At Williamsford, the storm did extensive F3 damage to a strip of homes along Chatsworth Road 24, a township concession road. It then crossed Williams Lake, damaging some cottages and ripping up trees. As it crossed the small lake, it became a waterspout for a brief time, and some of the multiple vortices became visible. The tornado continued to move northeast and, as it neared Holland Centre, the winds hurled a 10,000-litre (2,600-US-gallon) gasoline tank (weighing approximately two tonnes) for more than 1.6 kilometres (1,700 yards). At this point, the tornado crossed Highway 10.
As the tornado neared the town of Walters Falls, it became more compact, but did not weaken. Damage was continuous but involved only trees. East of Walters Falls, the tornado became very strange in appearance as the funnel split into two separate vortices. A debris cloud persisted under both of these funnels as they rotated around each other. The tornado then rolled through the town of Blantyre where some homes suffered F2 damage. Shortly afterward the tornado began to weaken and finally lifted just before 6:30pm. The parent storm then moved out over the cold waters of Georgian Bay near Meaford, where it rapidly dissipated.
Read more about this topic: 1996 Southern Ontario Tornadoes
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