Trees snapped, roofs torn off in Ontarios first tornado of 2014

Trees and hydro poles were snapped, roofs were ripped off, and multiple porches were severely damaged as Ontarios first confirmed tornado of 2014 hit the town of Mildmay Tuesday evening.

Laurie Trelford, the owner of a womens clothing store in Mildmay, was trying to close the store for the evening when the tornado struck.

About 5 p.m. a crazy, crazy wind came up, Trelford told the Star. Ive been on the main street here for 10 years, and I have never seen the wind come like that. It was very creepy, very scary.

A series of strong thunderstorms moved across southern Ontario Tuesday evening, and numerous tornado warnings were issued by Environment Canada.

One of these severe thunderstorms produced a tornado in the Mildmay area, just south of Walkerton in Bruce County.

Geoff Coulson is an Environment Canada meteorologist. He estimates that the tornado happened between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. and lasted only a matter of seconds, according to radar and eyewitness reports.

The storm itself was over relatively quickly, said Coulson. But it did leave a fair amount of significant damage in its wake.

Winds were estimated to be between 135 and 175 km/h. The width of damage was around 150 metres wide with a length of two kilometres.

No one was injured during the storm, but cleanup efforts are ongoing.

Half of the roof of my cousins house and his barn are damaged, said Trelford, whose own house escaped damage. Its quite a mess.

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Trees snapped, roofs torn off in Ontarios first tornado of 2014