Tornado in Ayr classified as an upper level EF1

An investigation from Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project has classified Saturday’s tornado in Ayr as an EF1.

An investigation from Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project has classified Saturday’s tornado in Ayr as an EF1.

“Sometimes we go into a situation like that where we’re not sure if it was a tornado or not, it might have been a down burst, so in that case we’re looking for evidence about a long, narrow damage path. With this event, there were lots of videos and photos. So we knew we were looking at a tornado even before we got there,” David Sills, Executive Director of the Northern Tornadoes Project told CTV News Kitchener during an interview on Sunday afternoon.

Once Sills’ team arrived, investigation included ground and drone surveys of the tornado’s path and the heavily damaged area in the Greenfield Drive and Northumberland Street area.

In a news release, the organization said, “The tornado caused structural, vehicle and tree damage - with a preliminary rating of EF1 - along a narrow path over 5 km in length. Empty rail cars and a tractor-trailer were overturned, and two trailers were tossed.”

Sills said his team will continue to investigate what happened, and the classification of the tornado could still change as more information becomes available.

“We’ll look to see if there’s anything, any data, to show that it should go higher. Because there was some pretty impressive damage. Things like rail cars being blown over and trees that were basically scattered every which way, including against the direction of the tornado which is not typically common for a weak tornado.”