Ontario’s first tornado of 2023 has been confirmed. Here’s what happened

Ontario recorded its first tornado of 2023 in Talbotville on Tuesday evening, a late start to the season which typically begins in May but sometimes as early as March.

An EF0 tornado with wind speeds ranging between 90 and 130 kilometres per hour is confirmed to have developed in Talbotville, Ont., on Tuesday and marks the first recorded tornado in Ontario so far this year.

The investigation is still underway, but the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) says it was able to send someone out to confirm the presence of a tornado after it received reports of a funnel cloud in the Talbotville area around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“There’s an NTP survey team out there this morning just trying to get a better idea of the length and the width of the path and also a better idea of the maximum wind that was experienced at the site,” executive director David Sills told Global News.

Sills says the damage was “pretty light” but a two-by-four from a broken picnic table penetrated the wall of a nearby restaurant.

“So clearly, even with a weak tornado, you know, you can get debris that can really hurt somebody.”

Kat McComb, a storm chaser based out of nearby St. Thomas, saw online that a funnel cloud was seen in the area so she, her 12-year-old son, and her 26-year-old daughter hopped in the van to watch the storm.

“And as I was coming into Talbotville, that was when I saw the damage at London Waffle Company. And we stopped in there to make sure that everybody was OK.”

McComb added that her children love storm chasing too but she only takes her 12-year-old son out on “light chase days.”