1985 Barrie tornado outbreak

The 1985 Barrie tornado outbreak was a tornado outbreak in the Canadian province of Ontario, one of the largest and most damaging in the province's history. In total, thirteen separate tornadoes, with two of them rated at F4 on the Fujita Scale, crossed southern Ontario during the late afternoon and early evening hours of May 31, 1985. Twelve people died, 281 were injured, and millions of dollars in damage was done in the province of Ontario alone. One of the tornadoes devastated the city of Barrie, nestled at the far western edge of Kempenfelt Bay, on Lake Simcoe.

Another, equally devastating tornado further south tore a path over 100 kilometres (62 mi) long, parallel and north of Highway 9, passing through several towns in the process. This unprecedented outbreak was part of a larger one in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Several of those tornadoes were violent as well. Conditions were perfect for such a major late spring tornado outbreak that May 31, which later became known as “Black Friday”.

Weather conditions

The upper air pattern was conducive for a major severe weather event in the Great Lakes that Friday, May 31. An unseasonably deep low pressure system at 984 hPa crossed out of the Midwestern U.S. through the day, and then into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Very warm air surged in ahead of this system. Temperatures reached the upper twenties in Celsius (approximately 80-85 Fahrenheit) across much of southern Ontario, in addition to high dew point levels. An unstable atmosphere (surface based lifted indices around minus 6) was the byproduct of this.^[1] Directional wind shear was also present in the warm sector of the storm, in addition to high helicity values and a vorticity maximum approaching the lower lakes.

The situation was worsened by the presence of copious amounts of moisture, which would allow any storms that could form to become severe rather quickly. Also, this was supportive of the HP (high-precipitation) counterpart of the supercell thunderstorm (Verkaik, 1997). All of this added up to the distinct possibility of severe rotating storms that were messy, hard to see, and extremely dangerous. What was needed now was a trigger, and that came in the form of a trailing cold front behind the low. Severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes had already raked parts of the Midwest U.S. (particularly in Iowa and Wisconsin) the day before on May 30, associated with this same cold front (Grazulis, 1990).

The day started off on an active note with the warm front moving northwards. A possible tornado was reported near Leamington, accompanied by golfball size hail from widespread severe thunderstorm activity in southwestern Ontario. Following the warm frontal passage, skies cleared rapidly and temperatures quickly began to rise. The cold front began crossing Lake Huron towards the noon hour, and with it several thunderstorms developed shortly after 1:30pm EDT, with the northernmost cell soon becoming most dominant. Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 2:25pm for Bruce County (complementing the special weather statement issued early that morning). At around 2:50pm, an F2 tornado touched down briefly in the Lion's Head area (north of Wiarton) before moving out over Georgian Bay and dissipating.^[2]

The Hopeville to Barrie supercell

At about the same time the Lion's Head tornado dissipated, two very severe thunderstorms had developed (that probably owe their inception, at least partially, to lake breeze convergence): one to the east of Clinton and another further to the north, in the Walkerton area. These two developing supercells would grow into a pair of incredibly devastating, monster storms within the next hour - likely the most prolific tornado producers in Canadian history to date.

The second tornado of the day touched down south of Hopeville around 3:45pm, causing some localized F3 damage along its track. This tornado lifted after a 17-kilometre (11 mi) path, but another tornado quickly formed just north of Corbetton, in northern Dufferin County at about 4:15pm.^[3] It stayed over rural areas for most of its 40-kilometre (25 mi) path, however a few homes (especially in the Terra Nova and Mansfield area) sustained F3 damage (it has been somewhat disputed whether this path was of two separate tornadoes, rather than just one). In any case, shortly after this tornado had clearly dissipated, there were hints of another brief touchdown near Angus in the training area of Canadian Forces Base Borden (north of Alliston). This northern storm, clearly a cyclic supercell, was far from finished. The next tornado was the last of this storm, but was the most infamous one. It formed in southern Simcoe County (Essa Township), less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of Highway 400 and the Barrie city limits.

At approximately 4:00pm, all electrical power in Barrie went out, as the Grand Valley/Tottenham tornado took out the main hydro transformers, southwest of the city (LeGrand, 1990). Few residents had any idea of what was looming over the horizon, but many people were let off work 30-45 minutes before the storm hit due to these power outages. Had this not happened, the death toll would have undoubtedly been much higher.^[4] The intensifying tornado first obliterated a pine tree forest plantation. Some 10-metre (33 ft) high trees were snapped at the 2-metre (6 ft 7 in) level. At this point the damage path was about 600 metres (2,000 ft) wide, moving steadily towards the east-northeast. It then entered the southern part of Barrie shortly before 5:00pm. Visibility was very low as the tornado was cloaked in heavy rain and dust, thus making it very difficult to see. Extensive F3 (although some localized F4) damage occurred to an entire square block of homes in the Crawford Street and Patterson Road subdivision. Five people were killed in the area as some homes there were not well-built, and thus collapsed after being pushed off their foundations.^[5] Two of these five deaths included a mother and son, killed when their Crawford Street home was completely levelled (Bruineman, 2010). Most of the fatalities occurred in homes with no basements, where head and chest trauma resulted from an increased exposure to flying debris.

Next, the tornado hit an industrial complex (known then as Molson Park). One person died at a tire retreading facility while at least fifteen other businesses were damaged or destroyed (Bruineman, 2010). Steel I-beams were twisted horribly out of shape, and splinters of wood were found embedded into nearby concrete walls. The tornado then proceeded to cross Highway 400 at Essa Road (former Highway 27) interchange, just missing the Barrie Racetrack to the south. The grandstand was heavily damaged and several barns nearby were destroyed. A man was killed after he was sucked out of his parked car in an adjacent lot (Bruineman, 2010). Several vehicles traveling on Highway 400 were tossed into the ditch, their drivers escaping with only minor injuries. Highway guard rails were found wrapped around telephone poles nearby. Many cars were also found with puncture holes in their frames, owing to the flying debris. As it crossed the highway, it moved into the Allandale subdivision.

Many homes sustained severe damage there, with much of their upper floors missing. By this time the tornado’s path had narrowed to about 300 metres (980 ft). The track moved from Debra Crescent to Joanne Court with more extensive damage. Near Tower Crescent, the path narrowed to a comparatively small fifty metres.^[6] On Briar Road, homes sustained only minor damage, indicating that the tornado had weakened somewhat. But the next road east, Trillium Crescent had sustained heavy damage indicating that it had strengthened once again. Four warehouses near Highway 11 were ripped apart. It then hit the Tollendal Woods and Minets Point area, taking out the Brentwood Marina and a nearby subdivision. A boy was killed in this area while trying to bicycle home (Bruineman, 2010). Over thirty boats, accompanied by their concrete moorings, were tossed into Lake Simcoe and never to be recovered.^[7] The tornado then moved out over Kempenfelt Bay where it became a waterspout for a brief time before weakening out completely. It came very close to the opposite shore, but no damage was reported there. Large quantities of debris from the city were later found floating in the bay, however. Despite the tornado's relatively short path length (under 10 kilometres (6.2 mi)), eight died in Barrie with 155 injured, and as many as 300 homes were damaged or destroyed.^[8]

The Grand Valley to Tottenham supercell

The storm which had initially developed east of Clinton produced a new tornado a couple kilometres north of Arthur by 4:15pm. Many power lines and hydro towers were destroyed early in its lifetime (including those used to deliver electricity from the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station to northern and western parts of the Greater Toronto Area). The tornado quickly widened, intensified and reached violent proportions by the time it reached the small crossroads community of Grand Valley just before 4:30pm.^[9] At that point the tornado's damage path was approximately 200 metres (660 ft) wide.

The tornado caused major damage in the small town, where two people were killed. An elderly woman died as her home was destroyed, and a man was killed in his pickup truck on a nearby farm (Bruineman, 2010). The worst damage was found along Amaranth Street (running west to east, parallel to the tornado's path) where the local library, three churches, and many other homes were severely damaged or destroyed. Approximately sixty structures in total sustained damage. The most severe was on the north side of the street, where some homes exhibited classic F4 damage. The library roof was found some 200 metres away on a nearby house (Bruineman, 2010).

Continuing eastward through more open country, it brushed the northern outskirts of Orangeville about fifteen minutes later (Grazulis, 2001) where the southern portion of the Mono Shopping Plaza completely collapsed (injuring 67 people, one of them seriously). It then caused extensive damage to approximately fifty buildings (many of which were only recently built) about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south of the town of Tottenham at around 5:00pm. Two more people died here, as an elderly man was crushed under an equipment shed on his farm and a woman was killed in her home (Bruineman, 2010). The tornado continued moving to the east-northeast, crossing Highway 400 into York region. It just missed the cities of Newmarket and Bradford before lifting west of Mount Albert at 5:25pm, with a path length in excess of 100 kilometres (62 mi), thus becoming a Canadian record that still stands today. When the earliest tornado track maps were published within the next year, they showed this particular tornado to have tracked almost twice as far towards the Peterborough area before dissipating.^[10] In more recent years this theory has proved to be incorrect; it is likely that this supercell was also a cyclic one. See the section below.

Other tornadoes

Most of the tornadic activity at this point moved into southeastern Ontario producing more tornadoes (some of which were significant). These tornadoes formed around the Highway 7 corridor between Lindsay to Madoc (Joe and Leduc, 1993) near the towns of Wagner Lake (F1 at 5:40pm), Reaboro (F1 at 6:05pm), Ida (F2 at 6:20pm), Rice Lake (F3 at 6:25pm), and Minto (F1 at 6:35pm). Most of these tornadoes had conversely shorter paths than the earlier tornadoes, likely as a result of the parent thunderstorms beginning to weaken. In addition, they did not receive as much media attention as the previous tornadoes (those earlier storms were grouped collectively by the media as comprising “The Barrie Tornado”), probably a result of the fact that they didn’t have the opportunity to cause as much damage.^[11]

Even so, at the time these more eastern tornadoes were touching down, a final, more isolated supercell developed near Milverton in eastern Perth County which spawned a tornado at 6:15pm. On the ground for approximately fifteen minutes, this tornado tracked a 33-kilometre (21 mi) path of sporadic F3 damage (mainly to outbuildings) from Alma east-northeast towards the Hillsburgh area. Its path was almost parallel to the Grand Valley/Tottenham tornado only a couple of hours earlier.^[12]

Meanwhile, lines of severe thunderstorms rapidly developed south of Lake Erie in northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania in the United States, along the cold front itself. Swarms of tornadoes began touching down after 5:00pm, south and southeast of Interstate 90. Some of the hardest hit were towns such as Albion, Atlantic, Bradford, Cooperstown, Newton Falls, Niles, and Wheatland (Grazulis, 1990). Later in the evening, some of these tornadoes crossed into New York, affecting southern Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties the worst (as these supercells moved northeast across Lake Erie into Canada after 7:00pm, they produced baseball size hail near Niagara-on-the-Lake, causing extensive hail damage).^[13]

Aftermath

Following the event, twelve people were dead and 281 were injured, as close to a thousand businesses and homes were wiped out (Grazulis, 2001). Still, hundreds more were left out of work largely as a result of the massive damage sustained to the industrial complex in Barrie. Of the 605 homes in the path of these tornadoes, approximately one-third were rendered uninhabitable.^[14] One of the more sobering instances was that of a blind Orangeville-area man whose home suffered a similar fate, following a painstaking 20 years of construction (LeGrand, 1990). Nevertheless, in the hours following the event, soldiers from "B" and "F" Companies, The Grey and Simcoe Foresters and from Canadian Forces Base in Borden assembled in Barrie to assist in the canvassing of the worst affected areas of the city. Coincidentally, the latter had barely escaped a tornado itself that day, it having momentarily touched down in the Blackdown Park Training Area before lifting again and passing over hundreds of married quarters. In addition, the Grand Valley library (levelled by an F4 tornado) donated books, and wooden pallets were donated by a local trucking company in Barrie so survivors could salvage their possessions.

Most of Grand Valley was completely rebuilt by August 1986, a little over a year later. The textile plant, Albarrie (one of twelve factories completely destroyed by the Barrie tornado) opened its doors once again within the next year.^[15] Even so, to this day there are still hints from the past of the tornadoes that day. Some of the wooded areas that were affected are still a twisted mess, and some random debris still remains scattered in the bush to the east of Highway 400 in Barrie. In the end, the price tag from the severe weather in Ontario alone reached an estimated $200 million (in unadjusted Canadian dollars, 1985). Correlating to nearly $390 million in Canadian dollars by today’s standard, it was a very expensive disaster indeed (LeGrand, 1990). This tornado outbreak ranks among the Southern Ontario Tornado Outbreak of 2005 and the 1998 Ice Storm as one of the most costly weather disasters to strike Ontario. Climatologists have estimated that the probability of a severe weather outbreak as widespread and catastrophic as this one, occurring this far north and east in North America once again is one in 75,000 (Grazulis, 2001).

See also

• 1985 United States-Canadian tornado outbreak
• List of Canadian tornadoes
  • Including the Southern Ontario Tornado Outbreak of 2009, the largest outbreak in Canada
• List of tornadoes striking downtown areas

References

• Bruineman, M. (2010, May 30). Touchdown - 25 years after the Barrie Tornado. The Barrie Examiner, pp. A8-A9.
• Grazulis, T. (1990). Significant Tornadoes: 1880-1989, Vol. 2. St. Johnsbury, VT: Environmental Films.
• Grazulis, T. (2001). The Tornado: Nature’s Ultimate Windstorm. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Grenci, L. and Nese, J. (1998). A World of Weather (2nd Ed). Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt Publishing.
• Joe, P. and Leduc, M. (1993). Radar Signatures and Severe Weather Forecasting. In D. Burgess, C. Church, R. Davies-Jones, and C. Doswell (Eds.), The Tornado: Its Structure, Dynamics, Prediction, and Hazards (pp. 233-240). Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union.
• LeGrand, J. (1990). Chronicle of Canada. Montreal, QC: Chronicle Publications.
• Verkaik, A. and J. (1997). Under the Whirlwind. Elmwood, ON: Whirlwind Books.

1. ^ Environment Canada - Report on the 1985 Barrie Tornado
2. ^ Environment Canada - Report on the 1985 Barrie Tornado
3. ^ Project Atmosphere - Tracking the Grand Valley Tornado
4. ^ Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction - A Tornado Scenario for Barrie, Ontario
5. ^ Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction - A Tornado Scenario for Barrie, Ontario
6. ^ Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction - A Tornado Scenario for Barrie, Ontario
7. ^ Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction - A Tornado Scenario for Barrie, Ontario
8. ^ CBC Archives - Deadly Skies, Canada's Most Destructive Tornadoes
9. ^ Environment Canada - Report on the 1985 Barrie Tornado
10. ^ National Research Council of Canada - Tornado Damage in the Barrie/Orangeville Area, May 1985
11. ^ Environment Canada - Report on the 1985 Barrie Tornado
12. ^ Project Atmosphere - Tracking the Grand Valley Tornado
13. ^ Environment Canada - Report on the 1985 Barrie Tornado
14. ^ Human Health in a Changing Climate - Vulnerabilities to Natural Hazards and Extreme Weather
15. ^ Albarrie Canada Limited - About Us