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Northern Tornadoes Project

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The Northern Tornadoes Project is a research initiative at the University of Western Ontario that focuses on tornadoes and other severe convective storm-related wind phenomena in Canada. It was founded in 2017 by Greg Kopp and David Sills.[1] with the financial support of Toronto-based social impact fund ImpactWX[2]

Background

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Recognizing the need to document tornadoes in large areas of Canada with low population density, a pilot project was established in 2017 called the Northern Tornadoes Flyover Project. The objective was to attempt to document tornadoes in Canada's northern forested areas that would otherwise not be identified using an aircraft instrumented with a high-resolution camera flying over areas with suspected storm damage.

Success with documenting 2017 tornadoes, particularly after high-resolution satellite imagery was used to identify a large tornado outbreak in Quebec, led to an expanded pilot project in 2018 - aiming to document all tornadoes in Ontario and any significant tornadoes in other parts of the country. The scope was increased again in 2019 to include all tornadoes across Canada, and the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) was officially launched with Sills as Executive Director[3] and Kopp serving as the ImpactWX Chair in Severe Storm Engineering.

In 2024, Kopp and Sills co-founded the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory (CSSL), a partnership between the University of Western Ontario and ImpactWx launched.[4][5][6] The work of the NTP, and other projects, continues under the umbrella of the CSSL.

NTP operations and research

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The NTP team under Sills detects, assesses and documents all Canadian tornadoes, makes tornado data publicly available via an open data portal and dashboards that can be used to map event data.[7] It also conducts research using the collected data, including climatology and trend analysis,[8][9] techniques to improve tornado detection and wind speed estimation,[7] and tornado warning verification.[10]

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Peer-reviewed journal articles

  • Sills, D. M. L., G. A. Kopp, L. Elliott, A. Jaffe, E. Sutherland, C. Miller, J. Kunkel, E. Hong, S. Stevenson, and W. Wang, 2020: The Northern Tornadoes Project - uncovering Canada's true tornado climatology.  Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 101, E2113–E2132, DOI 10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0012.1.[7]
  • Sills, D. M. L., C. S. Durfy, and C. P. E. de Souza, 2022: Are Significant Tornadoes Occurring Later in the Year in Southern Ontario? Geophysical Research Letters, 49, e2021GL096483, DOI 10.1029/2021GL096483.
  • Kunkel, J., J. Hanesiak, and D. Sills, 2022: The hunt for missing tornadoes: Using satellite imagery to detect and document historical tornado damage in Canadian forests. J. Applied Meteorology & Climatology, 62, 139–154, DOI 10.1175/JAMC-D-22-0070.1.
  • Ibrahim, I., G. A. Kopp, and D. M. L. Sills, 2023: Retrieval of peak thunderstorm wind velocities using WSR-88D weather radars. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 40, 237–251, DOI 10.1175/JTECH-D-22-0028.1.
  • Ngui, Y. D., M. R. Najafi, C. P. E. de Souza, and D. M. L. Sills, 2023: Probabilistic assessment of concurrent tornado and storm-related flash flood (TORFF) events. Int. J. Climatol., 43, 4231-4247, DOI 10.1002/joc.8084.
  • Stevenson, S. A., C. S. Miller, D. M. L. Sills, G. A. Kopp, D. M. Rhee, and F. T. Lombardo, 2023: Assessment of wind speeds along the damage path of the Alonsa, Manitoba EF4 tornado on 3 August 2018. J. Wind Engineering & Industrial Aerodynamics, 238, 105422, DOI 10.1016/j.jweia.2023.105422.
  • Sills, D. M. L and L. Elliott, 2023: Assessment of Tornado Alerting Performance for Canada. Atmos.-Ocean, DOI 10.1080/07055900.2023.2257163.[10]
  • Butt, D. G., A. L. Jaffe, C. S. Miller, G. A. Kopp and D. M. L. Sills, 2024: Automated large-scale tornado treefall detection and directional analysis using machine learning. Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems, DOI 10.1175/AIES-D-23-0062.1.
  • Miller, C. S., G. A. Kopp, D. M. L. Sills and D. G. Butt, 2024: Estimating Wind Speeds in Tornadoes Using Debris Trajectories of Large Compact Objects. Mon. Wea. Rev., 152, 1859–1881, DOI 10.1175/MWR-D-23-0251.1.

Other Scientific Articles

  • Kopp, G., D. Sills and J. Brimelow, 2024: Canada is witnessing more thunderstorm impacts than ever before. The Conversation - Canada Edition. Academic Journalism Society, Toronto, Canada.

NTP in the media

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The work of the NTP has been featured on TV and radio,[11][12][8][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][9] newspapers,[21][22][23][24][25] magazines,[26] and podcasts[27][28] in Canada and the United States.

References

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  1. ^ "Dave Sills". CatIQ Connect. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
  2. ^ "Home". ImpactWX.
  3. ^ "Western News - Tornado alley childhood shaped meteorologist". Western News. June 13, 2019.
  4. ^ Semeniuk, Ivan (28 Oct 2024). "Storm watch: Scientists at Western University are setting up a new laboratory to study the increasingly costly hazard of severe storms in Canada". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 20 Nov 2024.
  5. ^ Donnini, Alessio (28 Oct 2024). "Canada's 'authoritative source' for severe storm research opens in London, Ont". CBC News. Retrieved 20 Nov 2024.
  6. ^ Allen, Kate (28 Oct 2024). "This summer's rain storms hit by surprise, overwhelming Toronto area residents. A new lab aims to stop that from happening again". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 20 Nov 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Sills, David M. L.; Sills, David M. L. (December 23, 2020). "The Northern Tornadoes Project: Uncovering Canada s True Tornado Climatology". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 101 (12). AMS: E2113 – E2132. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0012.1 – via journals.ametsoc.org.
  8. ^ a b Daigle, Thomas (July 14, 2023). "Canada's Tornado Alley may be moving from Prairies to Ontario-Quebec, warn researchers". CBC-TV News - The National.
  9. ^ a b ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Environnement- (2023-07-14). "Canada's Tornado Alley may be moving from Prairies to Ontario-Quebec, warn researchers". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  10. ^ a b Sills, David; Elliott, Lesley (2023). "Assessment of Tornado Alerting Performance for Canada". Atmosphere-Ocean. doi:10.1080/07055900.2023.2257163.
  11. ^ Corp, Pelmorex (2019-06-14). "Northern Tornadoes Project goes coast-to-coast in hunt for Canadian twisters". The Weather Network. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  12. ^ Robinson, Mark (September 14, 2022). "Why you can't rule out tornadoes during Ontario's cooler months". The Weather Network.
  13. ^ Bernstien, Jaela (May 25, 2022). "What's a derecho and why is it so destructive? The science behind this powerful storm". CBC News.
  14. ^ Butler, Colin (May 19, 2024). "Wildfires and tornadoes have a tangled relationship. Ontario researchers work to learn why". CBC News.
  15. ^ Hendry, Leah (June 6, 2024). "If Canada's tornado alley is shifting east, how can we better prepare?". CBC News.
  16. ^ "2 tornadoes damage home, down trees northeast of Edmonton - Edmonton | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  17. ^ Ismail, Reta (2024-08-09). "Western's Northern Tornadoes Project investigating storm damage near Aylmer". CTVNews. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  18. ^ Allen, Matt (2024). "Canada-wide tornado data at your fingertips on new website". CBC Radio One.
  19. ^ Goeree, Josh (2024-07-26). "2022 derecho storm was stronger, deadlier than first recorded: Northern Tornadoes Project". CityNews Ottawa. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  20. ^ "The first Canadian tornado of 2024 touched down in the Amherstburg area". www.am800cklw.com. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  21. ^ Allen, Kate (July 19, 2023). "Are more tornadoes coming to Ontario? Twister-trackers see signs the bull's-eye is shifting". The Toronto Star.
  22. ^ "Tornado-proofing communities". The Globe and Mail. 2022-11-18. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  23. ^ Whang, Oliver (March 10, 2023). "Where is Canada Hiding All Its Tornadoes?". The New York Times.
  24. ^ Penaloza, Dani (2022-10-27). "Devastating tornadoes hit Canada without warning — something has to change | Canada's National Observer: Climate News". www.nationalobserver.com. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  25. ^ May 19, Bryan Dickie; Read, 2023 9 Min (2023-05-19). "Eastern Ontario feels abandoned after 2022 tornado". The Narwhal. Retrieved 2025-06-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ Pope, Alexandra (May 21, 2023). "The research project trying to find every tornado in Canada". Canadian Geographic.
  27. ^ "The Decibel - Why storms are more destructive now?". The Globe and Mail. September 14, 2022.
  28. ^ Shepherd, Marshall (2021). "Northern Tornadoes Project - Tornadoes North of the Border". Weather Geeks.
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