Potential tornado reported in Wellesley area

A tornado may have been spotted in the Wellesley area as a powerful storm swept through southern Ontario.

Environment Canada issued red tornado warnings from Stratford to Waterloo Region between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Wednesday evening as the system moved through the area.

“[The storms] produced large hail, torrential downpours, strong winds,” Environment Canada meteorologist Rob Kuhn told CTV News. “There’s widespread power outages from, it looks like, the western part of Waterloo Region all the way to the Goderich/Grand Bend area.”

Kuhn said they had received reports of hail up to 5 cm in size.

At one point, Environment Canada said a “radar confirmed tornado” had been reported.

“What’s called a ‘tornado debris signature’ showed up on radars somewhere near Wellesley,” Kuhn explained.

The signature appeared just northwest of Weimar Line and Hackbart Road.

“It was quite noticeable and from what I could see in interpreting the radar imagery, I see and fully support why such a warning was issued, because something happened there from radar that was suggesting debris was in the air. A tornado could be one reason for it, another reason for something like that could be extremely strong wind gusts of 120 to 130 km/h all of a sudden.”

Kuhn also said the storm could have been a major thunderstorm wind damage event.

Although there are indications that a tornado may have been in the area, there is still work to do to confirm what happened.

The Northern Tornadoes Project out of Western University takes charge of the investigation. Typically, crews go to affected areas to see what really happened.

“There’s going to be a lot of work tomorrow because there’s damage in a lot of areas, but that may be on their list of areas to check,” Kuhn explained. “They’ll send a crew out and they will do a damage survey. That’s done today by a combination of boots on the ground and by drones.”

As of 9 p.m. Wednesday evening, the Northern Tornadoes Project had not confirmed if they will be heading to Wellesley.

While the experts continue trying to figure out what happened, homeowners were left cleaning up the damage.

Fallen tree branches were reported throughout Waterloo Region and the surrounding areas and several local streets flooded during the storm.

Thousands of homes that had been in the storm’s path also lost power.

Wellesley’s Fire Chief Paul Redman told CTV News crews were knocking on doors and assessing the damage.

“Calls came in for wires down. We had a transformer that had sparked on fire, so we left an apparatus there,” Redman said. “Some of our other apparatus and crews drove around the villages, the back and the side roads and the other roads and lines around the township to make sure any place that had looked like it had damage - they were going in and checking on residents, especially ones that don’t have modern technology.”

The Township of Wellesley urged residents to respect all barriers and road closures and stay away from downed or hanging hydro lines.

“There will be plenty of time to clean up tomorrow. Tonight, the safest choice is to stay inside,” a social media post from the township said.

In Kitchener, forestry crews had received more than 60 calls about downed trees and debris by 9:30 p.m.

“Crews are working late this evening to address issues, prioritizing clearing roadways, then driveways, then sidewalks, and will return to non-urgent areas in the morning. There may be an impact to residents’ morning commute,” Tracy Jasmins, a communications and marketing associate with the City of Kitchener, told CTV in an email.