Tornado confirmed in Brossard

A semi truck lies on it's side in Brossard on Wednesday evening, after a tornado moved across the area around 8:15PM. There was also damage reported to a few homes, power lines and trees. (Longueuil Police Photo)

The Northern Tornadoes Project from Western University will be investigating the damage caused by a tornado in South Shore Brossard around 8:15PM Wednesday evening. The storm was captured on video and appears to be an EF-0 tornado or perhaps a low end EF-1. Investigators will confirm the tornado and determine the strength later today. The tornado uprooted trees, knocked over a semi truck and cut power to over 3500 homes around Matte Boulevard. The same line of storms did show some rotation as it passed over my location on Ile Perrot. 

The same storm the produced the possible tornado in Brossard Wednesday evening, exhibited rotation as it moved across Ile Perrot around 8PM. (Valley Weather Photo)

Tow other possible tornadoes were observed in Saint-Hippolyte and Portneuf. If both storms are confirmed, it will bring the number of tornadoes to date in 2024 to 11 across Quebec. This is well-above the long-term average of 4.

As expected, strong thunderstorms swept across southern Quebec and parts of Ontario starting early Wednesday afternoon. The storms were in response to a frontal boundary moving into a very moist and unstable airmass. There were several rounds of storms into the evening hours, producing primarily heavy rain an lots of vivid lightning across the Montreal region.

Around 16mm of rain fell at Trudeau Airport on Wednesday, bringing our monthly total to 112.4mm. There was some minor flooding reported, especially in the western portion of the island, but thankfully not a repeat of the July 10 storms.

Thunderstorms produced some minor flooding along Senneville Road near the Île-aux-Tourtes-Bridge Wednesday afternoon. (Valley Weather Photo)

In Ontario, the storms prompted tornado warnings in the mid-afternoon for the Hawkesburry region and neighbouring Lachute. In the evening hours another tornado warned storm moved from the Rideau Lakes region into the Merrickville and Kemptville area south of Ottawa. There were reports of downed trees and power lines.

A cold front on Thursday will be accompanied by isolated showers, before cooler and less humid air arrives for Friday. Temperatures will be cooler Thursday and Friday, before warming once again into the high 20s and low 30s for the weekend and beyond.

Meanwhile western Canada is baking and burning. Temperatures soared to 40C (104F) across southern Saskatchewan and Alberta on Wednesday. Significant fires are burning in Alberta and British Columbia, including the Jasper Complex Fire that has burned thousands of hectares and forced the evacuation of Jasper Townsite and closure of the National Park.