well this is new

[the_siobhan]

Toronto has never had a tornado warning in the 50+ years I've lived here.

We just got our second one this month.

Comments

[chasing_silver]

Are you in the north? I'm not seeing one for where I am in TO.

[jo]

Did you not get one on your phone? We did. But I think it's more for Mississauga, based on the Weather Network dude.

[chasing_silver]

No, but I'm right downtown, so maybe it didn't affect us. I know Etobicoke got it. I also know that funnel clouds were trying to form over the Toronto Harbour, but it didn't quite work. We are under a lightning and severe thunderstorm warning still, though.

[the_siobhan]

I'm in Parkdale. We got the Amber Alert, but just the thunderstorm showed up.

Apparently the warning was for all the of the horseshoe, but from what we read[1] they tend to veer away from the city centre - something about all the tall buildings trapping the heat pushes them away. So they end up being much more likely to pass through the suburbs than where we are.

[1]It prompted a flurry of googling.

[sushispook]

What in the *fuck*.

Plus side: you might end up in Oz? Which... could be a more positive experience at this point?

[the_siobhan]

If the munchkins are wearing facemasks, I'm just going back in the damn house.

[cincinnatus_c]

I gotta note that a tornado warning was issued for the city of Toronto by Environment Canada on June 17, 2017. That's the first one I've been able to google up ... if I were gonna bet, I'd bet there have been more (they're not all that easy to google, because EC doesn't archive them, at least not publicly, AFAIK), though I have absolutely no idea how many more. Criteria for warnings, and interpretation of the criteria, evolve over time--EC has gotten shit in the past for not warning, or not warning enough in advance, about tornadoes. Their position on warnings has generally been that they don't want to over-warn because people will learn to ignore warnings. I suspect that social-media-world has--maybe misleadingly, it's hard to tell--given a lot of people the impression that people's capacity for alarm is greater than previously believed.

[nicklausse]

We got the warning, got the storm, then lost power for a short time. The epicenter was apparently Milverton from what I'm reading. It was one of those things where it was noon and suddenly the sun went out and the sky went black and green. But it was mercifully short.

[mschaos]

wait, WHAT? a tornado in Toronto????

[silentq]

When I was living in Borden, there was a tornado that touched down in Barrie. The sky was green even where we were, it was especially scary since I was babysitting for a couple out to dinner in Barrie.
I've had a tornado warning in Boston recently as well, the weather is all kinds of messed up right now.