First Fall Storm Stronger Than Expected, Tragically So In Quebec

Tornado destruction in Gatineau, Quebec Friday.

As advertised, the first autumn storm of the season blustered through the Northeast and southeastern Canada, including here in Vermont on Friday.

The storm in some ways was stronger than expected, especially in Quebec and Ontario. That strength unleashed an unexpected disaster near Ottawa.

In Gatineau, Quebec a tornado - and it looks like it was a strong one - swept through the city, injuring at least 25 people, with five having serious enough injuries to be hospitalized.

The storm displaced at least 600 people. This same storm caused added destruction in the nearby communithy of Dunrobin.

Gatineau is just across the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Canada's national capital. It was something seeing a photo of Parliament Hill with the national legislative building in the foreground, with a tornado in the background picking up debris and explosively breaking power lines.

The tornado appears to be unusually strong for one so far north and so late in the season. Given the photos of shattered apartment buildings, many with their roofs gone and debris scattered far and wide, I would guess the twister was an EF2, possibly and EF3. Tornadoes of that strength are rare in Quebec and Ontario, though weaker ones are relatively common.

The view from Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday. The lowering
cloud and what appears to be dust nearer the ground between the
green spire and the red flag is the Gatineau tornado.

There are pretty incredible videos of the tornado at the bottom of this post that are worth watching.

Tornadoes hit other parts of Canada. Pontiac, Quebec apparently had a tornado that damaged at least 15 homes. Back in Gatineau, lighting struck the high school and it burst into flames. Students inside the school were safely evacuated.

Further south, a small tornado spun up in northeastern Ohio, and there were numerous reports of wind damage from severe thunderstorms in eastern Ohio and the western portions of Pennsylvania and New York.

Had the storm system's cold front and squall line come through sooner, this storm would have been real trouble for us here in Vermont and northern New York. But the squall line entered the region after dark and it also encountered more stable air. The line of strong storms that entered northwestern New York weakened dramatically by the time they reached Vermont.

Still, we had those strong winds ahead of the cold front. About 3,000 people still had no electricity in Vermont as of early this morning, according to Vermont Outage Map. However, that number shrank to less than 1,000 by 7 a.m., so power is quickly being restored.

The shoreline in South Hero, Vermont was looking rather
stormy Friday evening.

Winds gusted to more than 50 mph along Lake Champlain. While on the southern tip of South Hero last evening, I even had to brace myself against the wind a bit like those Weather Channel meteorologists who stand outside during hurricanes.

I did see many branches downed by the wind. Most were small, but a few were pretty good sized.

On my St. Albans, Vermont property, one 20-foot long tree narrowly missed a new lilac. Out by the road, a dead tree crashed against some live ones, but I don't think there's much damage there.

The good news in Vermont is the storm dumped more rain than expected. In the northern half of Vermont, where it has been driest, a half inch to an inch of rain came down. That was nice.

This coming week looks wet, too. It will be dry and cool this weekend, and we should worry about frost in many places at night. Tonight, there are frost and freeze advisories in the Northeast Kingdom and Adirondacks

More widespread frost alerts might be needed tomorrow night, so stay tuned.

Another storm that could be a fairly wet one will affect Vermont Tuesday night through Wednesday night. More than an inch of additional rain is possible with this one. Unfortunately, it also looks like another windy one, especially on Tuesday. However, winds probably won't be as strong as they were Friday.

Here are some videos of the wild  and scary Quebec tornado:

The first video is said to be from inside a Gatineau apartment building:



Here, a terrified woman in her car gets caught in the tornado as the side windows of the vehicle blow out:



Another view from inside a car, via a dashcam in Dunrobin, Quebec. The driver pulls the car against a building for protection as the tornado passes over her, hurling debris that hit the car. After the tornado passed, she drove on into a scene of destruction: