Massive Storm Hits Toronto, Tornados Reported Across GTA
A massive storm cell is ripping through the GTA, with multiple reports of tornado touch downs outside the city, resulting in at least one confirmed fatality in the town of Durham, Ontario.
Early reports also indicate a tornado touching down near Vaughan Mills and cars having been flipped on highway 400 as well as tornadic activity in the city of Toronto itself, but these have yet to be confirmed as the storm continues to move eastward. Reports, photos and videos have also lit up on twitter throughout the evening.
Updated: More photos and video of the tornado touching down in Vaughan, the storm front entering Toronto, and the brilliant skies and rainbows left in the storm's wake.
Along with the tornadoes, massive lightening strikes peppered the evening sky.
Video clips: one of the tornado touching down in Vaughan, couple of a wall cloud approaching downtown Toronto, and one that shows the heavy rain:
The sky after the storm was nothing short of spectacular and eerie, displaying the type of saturated colour that seems to accompany the hardest poundings.
If you have photographs of tornadoes or the storm in general, please upload them to the blogTO Flickr pool.
Lot's more photos and videos here.
Previous, related coverage: photos and videos of the August 9th severe lighting storm that came through Toronto.
Lead Photo by Zebriana, followed by photos by Janine Massey, ablankface, chewie2008~, @ThetaState, jumphawk, scott3eh, EvidencE, louise@toronto, bumblevee, louise@toronto, qviri.
Youtube clips from milsap. Tubeocracy, and hollyakimow.
TwidVid by modernmod.
Update: more videos:
Comments (51)
Wow! The storms in Toronto have been insane lately! Kinda makes me wonder what is goin' on with the world... Great footage!
it's the peace after the storm...
the storm is vicious, and God bless the victims and RIP to that one person...
but after the storm leaves, it's so beautiful.
and that rainbow is a sign that God will never flood the world again, so... thanks God :)
not to be a stupid bum, but it really is beautiful after the storm goes away.
wish i could help the people who lost their homes though....
all the best to them... God bless!!!!!!!
Thanks for the note. I've made the change in the text.
The title also bears an unfortunate typo: "tornados" should read "tornadoes." Apologies for the error.
Some amazing scenes both during and after the storm but that "Tornado in Toronto Yonge + Bloor" is nothing of the kind!
to Anthony: you CAN help the people who lost homes/property/etc. Donate your money to them directly. call them up and say "here's $100". or go help them clean up their property. stop wishing and start helping! :)
OMFG thast storm scard
I swear i was gonna scream just seeing that happen
and knowing my cousin was saying and bringing up the fact
that there was a possiblity of a Tornado i flipppeeedd!!!
Man,oh,man
How long till we start hearing Toronto '09: "The Summer of the Storm" out of every media outlet.
Amazing photos!!
I can't remember the last time I was scared of a storm & I was scared a little bit last night. lol
That same strange GREEN SKY, occurred during the 1999 Derecho, that flattened the forest of the Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and a massive patch of NWO.
The rainbow is a sign that god will never flood the earth again?? and here is was thinking that rainbows were caused by the splitting of sunlight into component colors by raindrops. all this time it was god.....I feel embarrassed.
The sky coloring before yesterday's storms (tornados) is interesting. Last July 25th here in Vancouver we had the most spectacular lightening storm. Nothing like it had been seen in decades. Just before the storm we had dark and ominous clouds that then turned this fantastic orange color (reflected sunlight from the Straight of Georgia). Both light shows were fantastic as were the fireworks that evening. Late spring they had a fantastic storm in New York city complete with never before seen clouds and lots of orange. "Fear the strangley colored sky" I guess is the order of the day.
People in Texas and Oklahoma must be laughing at us right now.
The little twisters we got are but a dust storm compared to the F5's they get on a regular basis.
Just like how we laugh at them when the get light flurries and consider it the blizzard of the century.
People in Texas and Oklahoma must be laughing at us right now.
The little twisters we got are but a dust storm compared to the F5's they get on a regular basis.
Just like how we laugh at them when the get light flurries and consider it the blizzard of the century.
Say there is no such a thing as a GOD when that tornado is coming at you and you are calling out to him to spare you and save your life...One day... :) Blessings and much love..to one and all...
thanks for posting the great photos of Toronto. Greatly appreciated when you´re living so far from the place I once called home. Greetings from Santiago, Chile.
GREAT pics. But the thread title is wrong. There were *no* tornados reported in Toronto proper. Funnel clouds have to reach a specific wind speed and touch the ground in order to be designated a tornado.
There were indeed numerous reports of tornadoes in the city, the most notable being a 680 news update about one at the foot of Jarvis St. that was re-tweeted like mad. Knowing, however, that these reports were likely erroneous, I noted that they had yet to be confirmed at the time of publication.
For those of you who don't believe in God, keep it to yourselves, there are people who believe and don't believe, everyone has they're own beliefs, so if someone says " Thank god im alive" thats non of your business. Im a believer because something this beautiful cant be created out of nothing, we make paintings, we build cities, we build cars, THEY DONT JUST APPEAR OUR OF NO WHERE!anyway for you nonbelievers who kept your opinions to yourselves ignore this, but for those you who wished to make stupid comments like "there's no god", or "relax with your thank god rants", this is for you! I shared my belief with you 'cause you couldn't keep your mouths shut with others up here ^^^^ hahaha peace out losers MAY GOD BLESS ME AND EVERYONE TOO! >:D
Sorry to go on about this but Equality, you're contradicting yourself when you say "those who don't believe in God should keep it to yourselves" yet if someone else says "thank God I'm alive" it's not supposed to be anyone's business. Freedom of speech man. Take advice from your own name. :)
That storm was CRAZY! I remember looking out the window and all I could see was this humongous cloud approaching...prety soon I could see water under the street lights and then next thing i know...HUGE drops of water on my window and evetually the rain tookover so badly that I cudn't even see outside my window. It was like I was behind a waterfall or something!! Once the storm subsided, the colours of the sky had a mesmerising eeriness to it!!
Seems you cant keep your mouth shut either. If you want to believe in fairy tales go right ahead but once you open your mouth in public be prepared to get a response. Some people can only take so much ignorance towards science. Your delusions may be comforting to you but in reality its pathetic and ignorant.
Your god does not exist, never did, and never will. Theres no such thing as god, you got it dummy.
Personally, I have no problem with expressions of religious faith but "that rainbow is a sign that God will never flood the world again, so... thanks God :)" was just so childish that I couldn't refrain from commenting.
well when it hits you one day straight in the face, you will learn. your just too insecure to let yourself believe and scared of that higher power...anyway i don't wanna waste my time preaching to you cuz your blind. This life is the fairytale, and your living it :) my fairytale is much better than this :D
A debate about God within a topic about tornadoes is a no-win situation and pointless but Equality your last bit makes no sense at all. How can someone who doesn't believe in a higher power be scared of it?!? Or are you implying that insecurity is preventing someone from being scared of a higher power as if being scared is a noble thing? Either way you make no sense.
On topic, the storm put on a great show in Toronto but did worse north of it. Hope Durham and Vaughan make full recoveries.
i hope u dont have children, with an out look like that people need to belive in god and we need to know there is more to life then this and hopefully we all have the chance to have a peice of that mabey one day when u grow up you will see the light and realize you were wrong try it belive in it its a powerful thing.
Equality there is a simple explanation for your delusions: If my 10 year old nephew got in a time machine and traveled back to biblical times, with his basic understanding of natural sciences he would be by far the smartest living being. Back then ( just like now ) people looked for explanations to phenomena that they didn't understand. The major difference between then and now however is that the age of reason had not occurred yet nor was the scientific method used to form theory or law. In a nutshell, people were not rational and would make things up for the sake of comfort. How can someone in todays society still believe "science" from 2000 years ago? This was when we also believed the world was flat and illness was caused by demons.
this must be so intense and scarey but you have to know these are some beautiful photos you shot.
i've never seen anything like this over where i live ( netherlands )
Why is it all the "There HAS to be a god, (because I need one)" people lack grammer, punctation, and the ability to think, or spell correctly? Could it be that there is a connection between a lack of education, and the ability/desire to believe in a god? Hmmmm.....
Erm, "grammer, punctation, and the ability to think, or spell correctly". Oops! That'd be grammar with an 'a' then. (ps. I'm an atheist spelling Nazi).
My flight was delayed 4 hours, so we missed our next flight on Heathrow, so that was another 5 hours delay. Grrrrr,
It took us 28 hours to get to Amsterdam!
Life is just life. God gave us all a chance to live and I think we should enjoy life. Yesterday was the past, today is the present, tomorrow is the future. God gives us challenges to go against things such as tornadoes and hurricanes. Don't blame God for what's happening on Earth today. I lost my son in a horrifying situation like this and it hurts to see or hear when something happens like that. I'm really glad to hear that everyone made it out safely. All you need to do is turn to God and say "Thank you for making this day a challenge for me."
I thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster, for it is he that has guided me and protected me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
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