1996 Southern Ontario Tornadoes - Wellington & Dufferin County Tornado

Wellington & Dufferin County Tornado

The storm in Wellington County initially formed northwest of London around 5:00pm and slowly moved northeast where it began to began to produce funnel clouds. The first touchdown was about 8 kilometres (5.0 miles) southwest of Arthur at 6:10pm. A small funnel cloud was visible, but there was mostly just a large mass of dust at the ground. Within the next few minutes, the tornado began to take on a tube-like form. It was a multiple-vortex tornado, with as many as four distinct vortices inside the main path. The tornado’s overall width was about 400 metres (440 yards). It went quickly from F1 to F2 and widened, then became an F3 as it approached town from the southwest.

Extensive damage began on the west side of Arthur shortly thereafter. As the tornado passed Highway 6, it was at its peak strength. The tornado had a separate companion for a brief time, a thin black appendage that swept around the front of the main circulation. As the main tornado crossed the highway, it destroyed a barn full of hay which tinted the tornado yellow for a brief time. The tornado’s parent supercell also became more intense. A torrent of rain and hail preceded the tornado around the north side of the path.

The mesocyclone was rather large, even pulling in some of the precipitation from ahead of the storm. As the storm moved farther to the northeast, it nearly destroyed several farms before it plowed into the Luther Marsh, north of Grand Valley. East of the marsh, the storm weakened somewhat and the tornado narrowed in width. Upper-level winds were stretching out the storm causing a larger gap between the precipitation core and the tornado, thus making it even more visible to people in the storm's path. South of the tornado, it was warm, windy, and free of precipitation, with a spectacular view of the storm. The tornado damaged more homes and then crossed Highway 25, taking down several hydro transformers in one very bright power flash. The tornado now had a textbook-style appearance as a narrow wedge.

F2 damage continued on as the tornado approached the town of Shelburne in Dufferin County. Pieces of sheet metal and wood fell from the sky and littered the southern end of town after they were thrown out of the tornado. It then damaged more homes and buildings as it ripped across the southeast end of town. The tornado stayed at around F2-F3 intensity as it moved out of Shelburne into more open country. The path was now about 125 metres (137 yards) wide. It then moved toward the suburban town of Violet Hill, where several more homes sustained F2-F3 damage. Not long after, the tornado began dying out as its path narrowed to 50 metres (55 yards). Outflow from the core of the storm undercut the mesocyclone, and the tornado lifted by 7:00pm. This storm went on to produce another brief touchdown southwest of Orillia but all severe weather died down after sunset.