Tornado hits Ottawa's west end yet again: Research group to collect data in Barrhaven

Published Jul 13, 2023 • Last updated 7 hours ago • 2 minute read

Families go outside near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado ripped through Barrhaven in Ottawa on Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Does Ottawa’s west end have a tornado and windstorm target painted on it? One tornado expert thinks it just might.

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“The most noteworthy thing is that that particular area keeps getting hit. You know in 2018 that Nepean area took a big hit with an EF2 tornado there,” said Dave Sills, executive director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in London, Ont.

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“And then the derecho came through last year and it was right through that similar area, the airport and to the west and east of that. That was serious damage, as you know,” he said Thursday.

The research group sent four members of its team to Ottawa late Thursday. They planned to hit the ground collecting data in Barrhaven very early Friday.

“Their job basically is: How strong? How long? How wide? And also looking to see if there are other trails that happened,” said Sills, who spent 20 years as a tornado investigator with Environment Canada.

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OTTAWA – July 13, 2023 – Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

OTTAWA – July 13, 2023 – Families go outside their home to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Ottawa fire checking homes for safety Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go Corrine Horan checks out the damage outside her home near Merak Park after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families near Merak Park checking out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

]Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Zoya Tariq outside her damaged home with her daughters Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Zoya Tariq outside her damaged home with her daughters Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Families go outside their home near Merak Park to check out the damage to their homes and neighbourhood after a tornado rips through Barrhaven in Ottawa Thursday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

The storm sent these massive blocks of styrofoam, too heavy for one person to lift alone, swirling into the air. They smashed windows and cars along Aphelion Crescent in Barrhaven. Photo by Blair Crawford /POSTMEDIA

Electrical workers gather along Cambrian Road where Thursday?s tornado damaged wires and a utility pole. With Hydro Ottawa workers on strike, the utility is relying on replacement workers for service. Photo by Blair Crawford /POSTMEDIA

A tornado touched down in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa Thursday afternoon, ripping off roofs, smashing windows and scattering debris, forcing some residents to flee the area to shelter. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

Police were on scene cordoning off unsafe areas. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

A man surveys his backyard gazebo now on this front lawn. A tornado touched down in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa Thursday afternoon, ripping off roofs, smashing windows and scattering debris. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

A tornado touched down in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa Thursday afternoon, ripping off roofs, smashing windows and scattering debris. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

Homeowners take pictures of the construction debris from blocks away that landed in their front yard along with their BBQ and other items that were flying around in the tornado. A tornado touched down in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa Thursday afternoon, ripping off roofs, smashing windows and scattering debris everywhere, forcing some residents to flee the area to shelter. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

A tornado touched down in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa Thursday afternoon, ripping off roofs, smashing windows and scattering debris everywhere, forcing some residents to flee the area to shelter. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

A tornado touched down in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa Thursday afternoon, ripping off roofs, smashing windows and scattering debris. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

A woman carries her dog to safety during the storm. A tornado touched down in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa Thursday afternoon, ripping off roofs, smashing windows and scattering debris everywhere, forcing some residents to flee the area to shelter. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

Construction material from blocks away is strewn across someone’s driveway. A tornado touched down in the Barrhaven area of Ottawa Thursday afternoon, ripping off roofs, smashing windows and scattering debris everywhere, forcing some residents to flee the area to shelter. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

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They will be flying drones to survey the area to get images that they can compare with radar.

They’re already sure it was a “clear-cut” tornado somewhere above EF0 on the scale from EF0 to EF5.

Sills is part of the team that investigated the 2018 tornado and tied it to damage around Calabogie and White Lake that was not at first recognized as a tornado.

At first the damage path there seemed too wide to be a tornado, “but once we started piecing all of the data together it was like, ‘Wow, this was a wide tornado.’

“So you just don’t know until you piece all of it together, so the whole point of the survey is get all of that information in the field and then synthesize it once we get it all back to the office.”

He said forecasters handled the storm well.

“This is one of those cases where we could see the ingredients coming together a couple of days out and I think forecasters were ready for it. They had tornado watches out in Eastern Ontario and Quebec in anticipation of this event.”