Supercell crosses Quetico Provincial Park, spawns tornado that decimates forest
This tornado occurred at about 3:40pm, spawned by one of several powerful supercells that tracked across Northwestern Ontario on July 6. It touched down at Ottertrack Lake near the international border, west of Thunder Bay, and had a path that was 10 kilometres long and up to 500 metres wide. Along its path, the forest was decimated; according to Environment Canada, ‘most trees were flattened’. The damage path was located and the tornado was subsequently confirmed as the result of a Northern Ontario Tornado Project reconnaissance flight that scouted the remote area for damage in the days following the storm.
Although environment Canada’s original storm summary listed the damage path as being only 2 kilometres long and 100 metres wide, further analysis as part of the Northern Tornadoes Flyover Project revealed the length of the path and the width of the tornado to be significantly greater than originally thought. Aerial data collection including high-resolution photos and videos of the damage have been documented for the study that is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Western Ontario and at Environment Canada.
ECCC confirms an EF2 tornado from July 6 across Ottertrack Lake (in NW Ontario) based on MNRF finding damage in the area #onstorm pic.twitter.com/PFW7J6M4qy
— Dayna Vettese (@daynavettese) July 11, 2017
