Motivated Motion

This Is The Summer Of Our Discontent
Aka
Tornadoes Fly Over Newmarket (August 2), 2006

(click on the blue underlined words for significant links)

CLICK HERE TO SEE CFTO VIDEOFILE OF TORNADO AUG 2ND NORTH EAST OF US

We have had some strange weather here in Newmarket, Ontario.
We do accept we live in Ontario's version of Tornado Alley, but I have to admit our Tornadoes are nothing compared to the Prairies, the US MidWest, and Southern States.

These photos were taken in Newmarket, ON between 7:30 and 8:30PM On Wed Aug 2, 2006. There was a suspected Tornado this day too. Click on any photo to make it bigger. Back-page to get back to the blog.


The recent Tornadoes remind us of the last day of May 1985 when a Tornado ripped through Barrie and the surrounding area. That was a devistating day. See the Archives Report Here.


Our minds are driven back to those horrible memories when so many families had so much loss, they could never recover.

It is rare that Tornadoes here in Ontario do much damage. The land of the Canadian Shield is not really a good set up for Tornadoes or Earth Quakes.



We do get both. It is a rare event when either a Tornado or Earth Quake really effects us more than being a minor hinderance.



Why? Well we are a Province of dense forests, and granite hills. Earth Quakes can be 7.0 on the Richtor scale here in Ontario, but our quakes are deep below the Canadian Shield of solid granite and bedrock. Granite tends not to shake too well. So once in a while it will feel like a big truck with a bad exhaust system is driving by, and it is actually an Earth Quake.


Our Tornadoes are effected by our Landscape too. We have solid hills of grey clay packed on top of a shield of granite, so our land is not very flat. The trees that grow in our forests have strong root systems to be able to push through the clay and entwine in the the granite. Creating a stable hilly foundation to our terra firma. We also have so many large lakes throughout or area. Hills and water to reduce the effect of the power of the funnel cloud. Rough, treed surfaces tend to disipate a twister rather than give it a point where it can actually touch down or gain force. Our F-scale averages would be around F0 to F1 or so. I am no expert and I may even find links to say the exact numbers, but in my life, I dont remember too many higher, average-numbered Tornadoes.



Barrie was bad. I keep thinking it was a 4+. I am certain one of the readers will be able to update this number if I am wrong.


The Tornadoes we have had here since 1988(when we moved up to York Region) have caused property damage for sure. In the Town of Newmarket we have been in a daytime Tornado that followed the Holland River as we began to drive over the bridge at Roger's Reservoir. It broke every rubber seal in our brand new Ford Aerostar Mini Van with its sucking action. As the seals broke all the deluge of rain poured into the van on us. We were driving down to Fairy Lake for Canada Day fireworks at our friends' house when it hit. When we arrived at our friends' home it looked like we had ran the hose on ourselves as we sat in the vehicle. Our friends' house was 2.0 km from where the Tornado hit, and they had no rain or wind or anything!


When Alex was about 12yrs old we had another daytime Tornado that did some serious property damage. It was the day of the Persechini Run/Walk-a-thon. Folks were finishing the last leg of the walk, and were heading to the Mall parking lot. It was a Sunday and the Mall was closed on Sundays back then....


When the Tornado hit, it tore all the aluminum awnings off the Mall Facades and debris was flying over the crowd of walkers. In an emergency effort to keep the people in the parking lot safe, the Mall security people opened the Mall doors as fast as they could. The twister sounded like a freight train tearing through the streets.


Both of our Sons were out that day. Alex was at Navy League in the Optimus Hall which is about 7km across town. Cameron was a few streets over playing with a friend. The Optomist Hall got hit bad. There was structure damage to the roof and the power was out. All the Navy League kids waited out the twister in the basement using all their emergency training to keep calm.


Camerons' friend's home had all their window and door screens sucked off from the Tornado. Yard furniture flew around everyone's property, embedding itself in the strangest places. On our street, every house but ours lost their roof shingles. We were lucky that a few weeks earlier we had a new roof put on.There was serious flooding from the torrent of rain and hail. Trees blocked all the routes for us to get across town. Every route was closed, so we could not get to the kids in the Optomist Hall right away. Part of the town had no power where trees had severed the hydro wires on major roads, blocking the roads with live wires and timber.


That is a real awakening.

We never think about our busy lifestyles and all members of the family going in a billion different directions and never doing anything together. Then we are cut off from eachother in a crisis. Then self-evaluate the true value of the clubs and teams and memberships which drive each family member farther apart, to paticipate in a lifetime of events. When your little boys are not in your arms and safe with you, and the whole family is not together when the Tornado hits, you then realize the worth of family time.


This year alot of trees were destroyed. I didnt hear of alot of home damage. My Sons' friends home is three streets over. They had giant lawn furniture made of cast iron and teak. The furniture: Umbrella, giant table, and chairs were sucked into the sky and landed in a shattered mess in the field behind their house. Their neighbours' trampoline took to the sky and bounced off of several eaves trophs (gutters) until it found a new home empaled by a tree-top.
I saw 100ft trees sheered off about 8 ft from the ground. Branches torn off beautiful trees, and some split in half.



This last storm (supposed Tornado) caused sheeting rain, fork and sheet lightning, plus high winds. This morning video came out of Newmarket (again in our neighbourhood) showing a house, (that seems to be in the cluster of houses effected by the trampoline incident) having its poor roof ripped off, only to land on a truck, and just miss the gentleman trying to get into the truck.




I was a wild storm watcher, chaser, and chasee when I drove a transport truck in the US through Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. I was chased by my share of funnel clouds over the years while haulin' that good ole 53ft trailer.



In the family RV we got caught in the edge hail of a large funnel cloud just outside of Regina Saskatchewan. The hail stones the size of baseballs pummelled the RV denting the whole hood!




Every time we get another storm all these memories come flooding back. The emotion that bubbles up at the mention of the Barrie Tornado in 1985 still chills us to the bone. For days we saw people crying looking for loved ones and pets, and to salvage something of their past memories from the rubble.




Every storm photo I take is for those who were sacrificed to the storms. Ours might not be the biggest, but we are Townies. Most of us know our neighbours by name. Their loss is our loss. No Matter where we are in the world we are victom to the weather.


The photos you are looking at are of the sky Tuesday August 2nd, 2006.
Check out the video I took from the garden doors. Hear the storm, see the lightning, and listen to the aftermath............I want to thank my son Alex for editing, and formatting my video taken on my digital stills camera so I could use it on the blog. It took him two hours to reformat, and edit the mini video clips I can take with my camera so you could see them in something other than AVI.

TURN YOUR SPEAKERS ON AND CLICK THE ARROW IN THE MIDDLE THE VIDEO BELOW. WATCH AND HEAR THE STORM AS I FILMED IT ON AUGUST 2, 2006. THERE IS ALOT OF DARKNESS FROM THE STORM CLOUDS CLOSING US IN. PLEASE BE PATIENT AND LET THE TIME PASS. THE LIGHTNING IS QUITE A SHOW! THE CONSTANT SHUSHING IS THE SOUND OF THE RAIN FALLING HARD. YOU CAN HEAR THE THUNDER ROLLING. THERE IS SOME REALLY EXCITING ACTION, THEN THE EMERGENCY BEGINS SO PLEASE VIEW IT ALL. AT THE END YOU CAN HEAR OUR CLOCK STRIKE 9. (approx. 6 min)




LINKS ABOUT NEWMARKET STORMS, AND RELATED NEWS

May 31, 2002

The 25th Anniversary of the 1985 Tornado

Storm Chaser Logs, Newmarket area

What Do Dowsers Do To Predict Tornadoes?

Ontario Storms Photos

News Video on July Tornado in Newmarket-July 18

News Video on July Tornado in Newmarket-July 19

News, Aug 2,2006

Storms, Aug2, 2006

Aug 3 Aftermath of the Storm


ALSO

August 2, 2006 is also the Anniversary of the Horrible plane crash at The Pearson International Airport in Toronto- remembered in this article




*

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2006/08/this-is-summer-of-our-discontent-aka.html