This tornado struck the community of Catchacoma, between Mississauga Lake and Catchacoma Lake, just west of Kawartha Highlands Provincial park. Cottages were damaged by falling trees and, at one, a gazebo was torn apart and scattered. The tornado touched down at 8:10 pm, was 300 metres wide and travelled for 4.5 kilometres.
This was one of seventeen tornadoes that touched down in Southern and Eastern Ontario during the evening hours of August 2, 2006. Until it was surpassed in 2009, the tornado outbreak set a record as the largest tornado outbreak ever recorded in Ontario.
Figure 1 depicts the surface observations at 5:00 pm EDT, which shows a low pressure over Georgian Bay with a cold front stretching into Michigan. This cold front became the focus for intense thunderstorms in the evening hours of August 2nd, which ultimately led to a tornado outbreak across southern Ontario.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada (2018), an F0 tornado touched down at 8:00 pm near Catchacoma, ON. The tornado travelled for 4.45 km with a maximum width of 300 metres. The tornado caused no fatalities, injuries or property damage.
Sources
NWS Weather Prediction Center Surface Analysis Archive. (2017). Surface analysis 21Z Wed Aug 2 2006. Retrieved from: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive.php
Environment and Climate Change Canada Data. (2018). Canadian National Tornado Database: Verified Events (1980-2009) – Public. Retrieved from: http://donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/weather/products/canadian-national-tornado-database-verified-events-1980-2009-public/
