EF0 downbursts reported during Tuesday’s damaging storm: Expert

The dust has now settled on Tuesday’s destructive storm, which capped off the final week of April, with new information coming to light on the exact cause of the damage.

With a few days now passed, crews with the Northern Tornadoes Project have had the opportunity to survey the more impacted areas in Guelph. The crew confirmed to 570 NewsRadio that the main source of the damage was from a downburst rather than a tornado.

“It appears all of the storm damage in southern Ontario was caused by downbursts, and Guelph is no exception,” said David Sills with the Northern Tornadoes Project.

The city was reeling days after the storm had taken place. Guelph police said a pair of businesses reported some serious damage to their buildings, and power outages along with downed trees also created some chaos in the storm’s wake.

“The building damage on Woodlawn and on Speedvale was investigated, but assessed as EF0, so the weakest on the EF scale,” said Sills. “There were, of course, also many trees down, but that was the case in many areas of southern Ontario.”

The EF — or Enhanced Fujita scale — is how experts classify tornadoes based on intensity and the damage they cause. EF0 is the weakest, and EF5 is the most powerful, correlating with wind speed and destruction.

There are key similarities between tornadoes and downbursts, both are severe cases of strong wind formations. Although there are also defining factors that separate one from the other.

570 Meteorologist Jill Taylor on the difference in damage between tornadoes and downbursts.

Jill Taylor, 570 Meteorologist, stated that crews, including the Northern Tornadoes Project, have key ways to differentiate one from the other at the scene of the damage, and, even though both can be quite destructive, there are a few factors they look out for.

“It’s based on the damage and the direction of the winds. They can determine wind speed, damage, they can determine a whole bunch of things just by looking at what’s left over after those winds roared through.”

As far as the beginning of May is concerned, it appears Waterloo Region is past its bout of active weather. Environment Canada is currently calling for a mainly cloudy weekend, with some possible sunshine poking through on Sunday.

The workweek is when some more possible showers are expected to return, with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all calling for rain throughout the day.