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The United States has one. Europe has one, and now Canada has one too. The Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory at Western University in London, Ontario celebrated its official launch last week. Dr. David Sills is the Executive Director of the Northern Tornadoes Project, which is under the umbrella of the Severe Storms Laboratory. He says the goal is the improve detection and documentation, to try to mitigate harm to Canadians and their properties.
Sills believes their research can help transform the understanding of damaging winds, hail and flash floods in Canada. He explains that part of what they do is investigate severe weather events to understand why and how they happen, gathering data on the ground and in the air. An example of their ongoing research is tornadoes caused by wildfires from the extreme heat. Researchers went to Jasper National Park after this summer’s devastating fire, because they heard there were very strong winds within the blaze. They looked at the way the trees fell, and the pattern of the tree fall to estimate tornado intensity. Sills says, “We took lots of drone imagery, tree samples and soil samples to see if a fire tornado was possibly involved in the damage that was experienced in the Jasper area.” Work is ongoing with this project.
Sills also mentioned that wildfires can have affects further afield because of the smoke that travels with the wind. He notes that smoke haze can block some of the sunlight, so temperatures may not get as hot as it would have if the sky was clear. “We’re starting to notice that on the big fire years, like 2023, the number of tornadoes across the country and the number of thunderstorms decreases, so there may be these connections between wildfires and severe thunderstorms that we never knew about before and we are just on the edge of finding more about that.” Another area of research is measuring the wind speed of a tornado by looking at the patterns of tree fall and how far large debris flies. Researchers also take drone footage and check satellite images to see what kind of impact tornadoes have on crops.