What to look for and stay safe if a tornado is on the way

Southwestern Ontario saw two tornadoes touchdown on Friday, August 11:in Hawkesville, north west of Waterloo, and in the Leamington area near Lake Erie.

An EF-2 tornadotouched down briefly on a farm southwest of the village ofHawkesville, while Leamingtonsaw an EF-0 storm.

• Environment Canada says tornado with 180 km/hr wind speeds hit Hawkesville, Ont., farm
• Environment Canada confirms EF-0 tornado hit Leamington

So what caused these recent tornadoes?

"We had a very unstable air mass and that's been the case on and off for the course of the summer," Geoff Coulson with Environment Canada told CBC's The Morning Edition Host, Craig Norris.

"It hasn'tbeen a very hot summer...but there's still has been enough heat and moisture in the low levels of the atmosphere and when those two ingredients combine with instability, like a cold front, we see these storms."

He adds that this instability can also causedamaging wind events, hail, flash flooding and heavy rainfall.

What should you do?

Tornadoesdevelop from strong thunderstorms, said Coulson.

On days where a strong thunderstorm is possible, the first thing to do is to know where to take shelter.

Listening for thunder rumbles,checking for weather warningsand keeping an eyeon the western sky for dark clouds and cloud build upare important too, said Coulson.

"Any thunderstorm, because of the lightning it possesses, can be deadly," he said, notingthat storms can move very quickly too.

Some storms have been known to move at speeds of 80 kilometres an hour.

"They can go from the western horizon to your position in minutes and if you get caught unprepared, that's when danger really arises," he said.

More tornadoes possible

Environment Canada has confirmed nine tornadoes have touched down across the province so far this season.On average, Ontario sees about 12 tornadoes every season, which goes from mid April to early October.

Although 2017 is shaping up to be another average year, based on this season's weather patterns, there's still room for potential tornadoes.

"I think it's certainly possible," Coulson said. "We had two tornadoes on August 11 on Friday, the previous Friday we had three tornadoes in Huntsville area, so they can come in bunches."

But there is the potential that Ontario could see a pause in activity as well. Coulson said the first confirmedtornado of the season was in April 11 near London but the second was almost three months later, on July 6.

"There can also be long stretches where we don't get any activity," he said.

Although, there is also the possibility that some tornadoes go uncounted if they occur unobserved in forests or sparsely inhabited areas of the province.