The Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory, a university-based research institution, conducts comprehensive studies on Canadian tornado patterns, including an eastward shift in tornado activity from the prairies to Ontario and Quebec, seasonal changes with tornadoes occurring later in the year, and the use of satellite remote sensing technologies (NDVI and synthetic aperture radar) to detect tornado damage in remote forested areas where ground surveys are impossible. The lab maintains a 30-year tornado climatology database and collaborates with Environment Canada to improve tornado warning verification and public safety.
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Well, good evening. Good evening. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Weather Brains episode 1 1631063.
This is for Monday, the 1st of June, 2026. Two big things today. Number one, beginning of hurricane season in the Atlantic basin.
Number two, the first day of meteorological summer. It's a celebration. But uh glad you're here and uh quite this is the pre-show by the way, the magical part of the program where we do three things. We share boring personal stories, humorous anecdotes, and from time to time we say outrageous things. So I just finished 7 hours of non-stop weather, wallto-wall. Seven hours. Wow. Uh we had a wicked line of thunderstorms. No tornadoes, but um uh we have thousands of trees down, 162,000 people without power at the peak. So, it has been a crazy day.
But we just got off uh got off that so I can come into studio B and do this. Uh roll from 7 hours of non-stop weather to to weather brains. John, we just finished 7 hours of non-stop weather today. Seven hours non-stop.
>> You're a rock star. Uh I've always told you you're a rock star and you are a rockar.
>> No. I just um you know then it started out as a marginal risk and um >> it's like a country music song, right?
It started off >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That that'd be a great country music song. So it it morphed into a um um we pretty nasty. We had 165,000 people with no power in the state. At one point, we're down to like 149 and we probably have 5,000 trees blown down. They are down everywhere. This was a classic northwest flow event with a cape of 5,000 jewels. 5,000.
I mean, um it was um just one of them there days. But we just decided and we had no tornado warnings. It was all severe thunderstorm warnings, but we just decided for a high impact event, you you you really and since we have a weather network, we don't have to worry about cutting off freak of the week or, you know, whatever's on television. We can just go live anytime we want to, as long as we want to. So, uh, and and we were concerned about trees coming through, you know, campers, mobile homes, trailers, people at the lake, lake houses. Uh, it was a high impact event. To my knowledge, we only had two relatively minor injuries, which is uh that that's the win. That That's the sign of a win here. All right. Uh let's see here. Uh Dave, can you hear us? Talk to me.
>> Fine.
>> All right. Sound loud and clear.
>> Great.
>> Uh Canel, can you hear us? Okay.
>> Yep. Can hear you loud and clear.
>> Good to see you guys. Thanks for coming on.
>> Good to see you. We owe you one.
>> And just just so you It's Connell.
>> Yeah, I was about to say >> that's bad.
>> He's been on TV for a while. He hasn't even gone to the bathroom.
>> I don't even know what my name is. I've not peed in 10 in 12 hours. It It's So, >> and that's a great show title right there.
>> Very good.
>> Let me get the recorders going so we can start this fine show.
All right, here we go. In 5 4 3 2 1.
>> You're listening to Weather Brains.
They're kind of a big deal.
>> Weather Brains, episode number 1,63, 1063. This is for Monday, the 1st of June. Hey, hey, hey. First day of meteorological summer and the first day of the Atlantic hurricane season. It's a big day. It's a momentous day. And we're glad you're here. And let's see who we got on the line here. I see I see Jen Naramore. We would love to know. We would love to know where are you and what are you doing and why are you there >> and why am I here? Um I am in Tallahassee, Florida. So I got out of Ohio for a couple uh after being there for a couple of months. And actually I was in Alabama this morning. I was up in Athens, Alabama is where I had a little layover and I cut a trail right before uh all the storms rolled through James, but I did listen to you in the car and it was great um to just kind of hear what what you had to say about everything. So, I stayed ahead of everything, got to Tallahassee. I'm making my way a little bit further south tomorrow and I'm gonna I'm doing some stuff with my goddaughter and then I am chasing June 13th through the 20th. So, I am flying out of Tampa to Witchah and then we're gonna go I don't know where and then on the 20th we're flying out of Denver. So, I know we make our way from Witchah to Denver. Uh Mark Sudith and CJ Morgan with Hurricane Track is who I'm going out with and they're out there right now. Uh I was watching their coverage, guys. It was really cool.
They're flying drones up from a from far away about one to two miles out to capture the structure to try to capture Tornado Genesis live on the air. So, it's been really neat to watch uh their coverage and they'll throw my name out there once in a while. Jen, you're going to be out here soon in hopes that I'm listening. So, I'm very excited to do that. And I get to bring a tornado history piece, James. Um when I'm in the car and they're streaming, we'll driving through wherever and I'll start bringing in some of the tornado history. So, I I'm really excited. It's my first chase cation.
>> You're like living a dream. You're you're living a dream. It's it's it's it's a good dream.
>> Yeah. It's really been amazing. Bless.
Yeah. It's a neat >> deep down inside I'm a little jealous.
That just it it just sounds so freeing.
It it just there's a little free spirit in all of us where you want to travel and you want to do the things that you're called to do and you're getting a chance to do that. So that's outstanding. You are very blessed. All right. James Adelot, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
James, what's happening in Tulsa town?
>> Well, we had one air mass thunderstorm go up right over the station that managed to get on all my four cracked windows about like such. Grabbed my keys, looked out the door, went I'm going to run out and roll. Oh no, cuz I was between weather hits and that wasn't >> I would look like a soaked dog coming back in. I might have looked like a soaked dog anyway for all I know. But yeah, even had some dimesized hail, but it's just about gone now. It's always cool this time of year to see those circular outflow boundaries just push out all directions.
>> The mighty blue rings indeed. Uh well, I'm glad that you're not a wet dog. Uh let's go down Interstate 44 to uh Kim Mlan, the commissioner ameritus. Kim, how are you >> doing? All right. But I could do without it going from spring straight into summer immediately. It's nearly 100° here today. Just so much. No thanks. I'm I'm already done. I'm done. Can we can we skip the next couple of months? I'm done.
>> Now, let me ask our two Oklahoma correspondents. How how many tornadoes did we wind up having in the month of Oklahoma statewide?
>> Check my picture of the week this week.
Two. And they were landspouts.
And they were both within what? 10 miles of not being in the state, too.
>> Wow. Goodness gracious. That's an anomaly. We'll talk about later. Uh let's see here. We've got John Gordon.
He Gordon is going to take over and introduce our guests. This is going to be a good show. I feel good about this show, John.
>> Oh, yeah. Folks, we had big hail in Denver today, but tonight it's about Canada. two of the really smartest people, uh, Dave Sills, uh, let's start with him and Connell Miller. So, David, uh, got a PhD at, uh, York University in Toronto in the late 90s. He serves as a severe weather scientist at Environmental Canada for 20 years. Dave, before becoming the director of the Northern Tornadoes project with Western Engineering in 2019, he's been an adjunct professor at both Western U and Western University. And that's in London, Ontario. Right.
>> That's right.
>> Okay. And the University of Manitoba, and he's the principal investigator uh with the new uh Northern Hail Project.
In 2024, become the deputy director of the Western Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory. I work with him on the um tree di for the damage indicators. U and I realized I was out of my league. This guy knows more about tree damage than anyone I've ever met. We'll see that here shortly. Okay.
>> Uh he's um published a lot of papers, a lot of journals, and he's a member of that committee I mentioned. Welcome to the show. We're so glad to have you.
>> I'm glad to be here.
>> All right. And then we'll introduce uh Dr. Connell Miller. I listened to your Weather Geeks podcast in the last hour.
I was blown away, by the way.
>> Okay. All right. Great.
>> Yeah. He's the director of the Northern Mezzanet project, adject professor also at Western University. Now, last week, uh, Eagle, we had a doctor on the show, a medical doctor. Connell is an engineer.
>> He is in the civil and environmental engineering. He's got >> Yeah. Don't ask me for help on an airplane. I'll tell you that.
received a BESC in civil engineering and a PhD in civil engineering for Western University in 2020. Now, this is cool.
Kim will love this. Is coordinator for the summer undergrad internship program for the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory.
So, expertise in remote sensing, as you're soon going to hear, folks, what he does with satellite and UAVs. It's pretty amazing. His current research is focused on alternate methods of estimating wind speeds and tornadoes such as the simulation of debris trajectories. He was involved in why Enderland went to number five. This is the dude right here. Everybody, welcome to the show, Connell.
>> Yeah, >> I I mean definitely a team effort, but but thank you. I appreciate it.
>> So, we're going to start with some basics here. So, how did you get into weather, David Sills? What did how did it all begin?
Well, I grew up in Windsor, Ontario, which is right across from Detroit.
And uh you know, the the Detroit TV stations all had their own meteorologists. Some of them had their own radars. And so, yeah, I got bit by the weather bug pretty early on. And uh you know, was very into watching all of the local weather. And uh you know, it's Windsor just happens to be one of the hot spots in Canada for storms. Uh, I know it's, you know, uh, it's not it's not as, uh, active as you get into the central US, but it's it's one of the more active spots in the whole country of Canada. And so, yeah, I mean, I I just was really, uh, obsessed with severe weather at an early age and, um, yeah, just kind of went from there and, uh, got it got interested in uh, uh, computers as well. So, like it all comes together with uh yeah, doing doing weather with computers and that kind of thing. So, it's I'm I'm doing doing my thing. Uh living the dream here.
>> So, what was was there a big event in Windsor? I know where Windsor is. It went across the bridge many times. But is there was there one big event that really sticks out?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Uh in 1980 there was a a really big u downburst event uh that hit south of Detroit but also into my area and so all of the trees were down around the neighborhood and it turned out uh Ted Fa actually investigated that event and it's it's published in in one of his papers um as you know kind of a representative downburst kind of event.
So yeah, that that certainly uh piqued my interest and uh you know, tornadoes were even more interesting to me. So as soon as I got into the tornado part of it, it was I was off and and running.
>> And that was in 1980, the Dumbers one.
>> So that was 5 years before DFW and Delta 191, >> right?
>> Okay, that's really interesting. So for the listeners, I've had several people text me, where are tornado alleys in Canada? Where are they?
>> Well, you know, it's it's really just an extension of the activity in the US. Um, and it it's interesting because it it's split in two, eastern part and the western part by Lake Superior. Uh, Lake Superior is just so cold and big that really nothing nothing survives uh downwind of it. And so you've got this big gaping hole in the middle of uh of the country where hardly anything occurs. And then you've got um you know the Ontario and Quebec maximum and then you've got uh the prairie maximum. And uh and so that you know it's it's uh the more south you go the more tornadoes there are. Uh we do have a bit of a a local tornado alley in southern Ontario because we're between all the Great Lakes. And so the Great Lakes kind of shut like like Lake Superior shut down activity for the most part um near the lakes and then enhance the development of thunderstorms and and tornadoes uh right along the corridor in between the lakes. And so you get this this long corridor that runs from, you know, Detroit, Windsor, north of Toronto out to Ottawa. There's this kind of line of, you know, where where all the big tornadoes have happened in southern Ontario.
>> Okay, that's a several people wanted me to talk about big tornadoes really quick because a lot of people mentioned Edmonton >> 1980. Is that the I don't know. Is that the highest rated in Canada or is there was there been a five?
>> There has been a five. There's >> Okay, where was the five and when was it?
>> Right. That was uh Eli, Manitoba. So that's west of Winnipeg and that was June two 2007.
And um you know as far as fives go it was pretty unusual. Uh the the track is only 4.3 kilometers longow. And um it actually was moving very slowly and did two loops. It hit a couple places twice.
Uh the the uh the jetream was way off to the north. So there was there was not much driving the flow in this area but uh there was enough instability that uh obviously the updraft is really strong there what what actually initially it was rated a four and um but you know there was damage that suggested it could be a five and then video turned up of um of the tornado basically circling around and a whole house goes into the air uh and and once they track down where that house had in and then what they had looked at that and it was the construction was all good. It got upgraded to a five based based on that video.
>> Okay. That's the only one, right? That >> that's the one. Yes.
>> Okay. Somebody wanted me to say, do you have any comments about Edmonton? Isn't Edmonton an unusual place to get tornadoes? People seem to think, but I I think there's been several near there.
Correct.
>> Oh, sure. Yeah, they they get tornadoes there. Um, you know, it's funny in Alberta, you don't it's not Gulf moisture that drives things. uh it's mostly evapo transpiration from crops.
So the season doesn't really get going until the crops get get transpiring, right? So they have to be semi mature at that point. So you get the big storms in June, July into August uh through through Alberta where Edmonton is. And uh there there's also a dry line uh off of the Rockies there. And uh we've we've studied that through a project called Unstable. And um yeah, it's it's a really it has a lot of influence on on where thunderstorms develop, on where tornadoes occur and uh and you know where the moisture gets pulled, right?
So, and again, it's it's mostly moisture from crops that feed all these thunderstorms out there. So, >> I've got three texts in the last minute.
Dry line in Canada. What the blank?
>> Yeah, >> it's for real, right?
>> Oh, it's for real. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's uh it's it's the same same thing that's hap that happens in the US, right? You get uh warm air descending on the to the le of the Rockies and uh we studied it back in 2008 and yeah, I mean we had we had instrumented vehicles that we drive across to to sample the dry line and it was incredible how tight that gradient is. like you you almost feel like you could walk across it and and note the difference in uh especially the dryness like you'd be into this kind of like I said uh uh moisture from crops on the one side and kind of cool you get to the other side and you're really hot and the dryness like your lips would chap that like instantly that's how dry it was. Uh so and you could just feel like you could just walk across that line and and that's where a lot of the storms and tornadoes are um you know initiated. So, Julie in Elorado, Kansas wants to know, "What is the peak tornado season in Canada? What is it? If I want to go chasing, when is when should I go?"
July. Uh July is the peak month across the country. And um you know, we our season starts basically we we've had 16 tornadoes in May. Uh we didn't have any in April. So, May May is usually when things get get cooking here. and um and then uh you maxes out in July and then usually by September, October things have petered out. Sometimes we get the occasional November tornado or something like that, but usually in that's in in the uh the east on the prairies. It's a pretty short season. Uh it starts, you know, middle of May and ends maybe the uh middle of September. You're not going to see much past the middle of September, >> but but in those months where it is active on the prairies, uh you can see >> Oh, yeah. Anything of any intensity that you see in the US could could happen on the prairies, right?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, Connell, how did you get into this whole weather thing? How did this all happen from an engineer?
>> Yeah, for sure. I I definitely would say I stumbled into it. I I I I didn't have that big moment like Dave. uh did with a beautiful tornado uh coming into his hometown. Uh coming out of high school, it was kind of like, okay, what do I do with my life? Um turns out I was pretty good at physics and calculus, so I did what any good person who's good at physics and calculus did and signed up for an engineering degree. And I was I was I was going through this engineering degree and I was kind of like, well, I'm good at this. I'm not like really super passionate about this. I don't want to end up spending my life in um you know rubber stamping um changes to people's homes and and things like that. So uh I ended up uh one of my courses that I ended up taking was called natural loads and their effects. Uh and that was how you design a building for wind and earthquakes and snow loads uh here in Canada. And I I remember I went up to that professor I said okay so all of these wind loads they're they're just straight line wind. what happens in like a tornado or down burst and things like that. Uh so he said, "Well, you should go talk to this person, especially if you're interested in research." Uh so that's how I got uh hooked up with Dr. Greg Cop, who's the director of the Canadian Severe Storms Lab. Ended up doing a PhD uh on how wind and severe weather affects uh buildings. Uh and then hopped on with the Northern Tornadoes project when I finished uh in 2020. Uh, and then that's uh kind of led me to now being the director of the Northern Resnet project here.
>> That's wild. That's wild. So, two people have just texted me. Where are all the Canadian severe weather labs? Because you're in the western where there's one.
Is there two? Where are they all?
>> We're essentially the one big severe weather lab. I think when you read Dave's Western Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory, that is Western University's Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory. It's very confusing how we have a university called Western University kind of in central Canada here, but I'll I'll leave that.
>> So there's one.
>> So there is one and it is us. Um so we with the Northern Tornadoes Project founded in 2017, added on hail in 2022 and kind of came together in 2024 to form the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory uh while starting the Mezznet project at the same time.
>> Okay. So how big is the laboratory? or how many folks do you have?
>> Oh, that's a good question. I think around 13 full-time staff at this point.
Uh we do definitely uh supplement our summer with a lot of graduate students and undergraduate students as well to get the the fieldwork done. Uh we're one of the largest undergraduate uh research programs uh here in Canada. Uh we hire this year we hired 28 undergraduate students uh from across Canada um any any discipline. So, we've had people from like political science and business and classical studies all come anyone with a passion for severe storms, we'll take them. We'll train them uh and we'll send them out on field campaigns to uh collect hailstones uh live chasing hail storms or doing damage surveys uh doing those forensic investigations for tornadoes or just doing general research and helping some of the staff with some of our like remote sensing projects or uh tornado climatology projects and that sort of thing.
>> Okay. So, are you part of Environment Canada or not? You're by yourself all by yourself.
>> We collaborate um with them. Uh but we are not uh a part of Environment Canada.
We we we we definitely uh work together um on on on these different especially the the tornado ratings I would say um is is is where we communicate with them the most. At this point, the Canadian Sphere Storms Lab is the the sole um provider of those enhanced food data scale uh ratings, but we definitely communicate that to Environment Canada as well.
>> All right. Two people have asked me this. So, when there is a suspected tornado, do you all take charge or does Environment Can I see it hits near the Environment Canada office in Edmonton?
Who does the survey?
>> We do. Um, so we will we we will send out our staff and our students uh anywhere across the country. We have three locations that uh we have as our quote unquote home base. Uh one of them being London, Ontario, one of them being Winnipeg, Manitoba, and then the other being just an hour or north of Calgary, Alberta. So we'll send out different teams from those locations, whichever team makes the most sense at the time to go do those uh forensic surveys.
>> Okay. But it also say there was a transition because when I was in Environment Canada, I was one of the people doing damage surveys.
>> I knew that.
>> And uh but you know that there was never a real budget for it. It was always something that was kind of the side of your desk. And um you know I I spent a lot of time when I was in Environment Canada trying to improve the quality, improve the tools. Uh, and so when this opportunity came uh to go to Western and and focus 100% on on the tornado stuff, uh, I really wanted to to make make this outfit the outfit to do this stuff. And, um, you know, we had the the resources finally to do a good job with it. And, um, you know, initially it there was a bit of friction about, you know, territory basically like, hey, >> imagine that >> this is something we do. But, you know, we we worked we worked with our colleagues at Environment Canada and got through that. And actually, we just signed an agreement um just in the last month with Environment Canada finally to to settle our roles posttorm.
>> That's great.
>> And that really sets sets it up so that it's it's uh recognized that we are the ones investigating post storm and yeah, we do it right across the country. Yeah, there's definitely some advantages to having everything coming through a sole source and to have all of the information flowing to one person and or to one group at the very least and have one group responsible for the ratings to try to make it consistent across the country.
>> Okay. So, just real quick, everybody several people asked me did how did the weather service in North Dakota contact you about Enderland? Real they all want me to ask you this. How did this happen?
>> Email. Uh that's it.
>> Uh yeah, we we we we just received an email uh one day that said, "Hey, we we read your paper on estimating uh the trajectory of large objects in tornadoes. Uh do you think you would be able to help us out with this analysis?"
Um the paper had uh basically analyzed three different Canadian tornadoes and three different objects in Canadian tornadoes. One of them being a 10,000 kg combine that had been Uh oh.
>> Uh oh.
>> I can finish a sentence that had been >> Go ahead. 100.
>> It's that computer, Kim. It's his computer again.
>> The the combine had been >> thrown 100 meters and we said that >> EF4 tornado. Let's see if he comes back.
>> Oh, hello. Am I gone?
>> Uh, we can hear your audio. There you go.
>> There you go.
>> Okay, I'm back.
>> You're back.
>> Okay, great. Uh, yeah. So, uh I I don't know what that is. I think 100 m is like 400 ft. I I don't know. Um but >> 300. Yeah. Okay. Um and they said, "Well, if this 77,000 kg train car being thrown 100 meters, what could that possibly be?" Right. So, we ran the calculation for them um and and provided them with an estimate.
Now, Brian Smith, who just died recently from Omaha, mentioned in one of his last interviews about the railroad car that was thrown in Edmonton. Dave, do you do you do you know that it was about the same distance? It >> almost Well, this is the thing. We we've learned about several events now. Uh we've been approached by other NWS offices asking for uh saying, "Hey, we've had a similar uh you know, train cars thrown and this kind of thing. Can you help us, too?" And you know, when we look back on some of our older events, like you said, the Edmonton event, there were some train cars thrown as well. So, yeah, we can we can start uh making a business out of this. I think there's so many examples.
>> Now, now Jim Leoo is probably listening right now. I know you know Jim Leoo from So, are I I can't remember. Is that on the list to get a new DI railroad cars or train cars or I don't know.
Uh, I'll def I'll I'll defer to Dave because I don't know what I'm allowed to say. So, >> oh, well, you know that we're on >> we're just among friends. That's what James Span always tells me.
>> Yeah, just tweet us girls.
>> Well, you know, we're we're on the committee that is working on basically the next generation of the EF scale. And after Connell and I uh had worked on this event at Enderland, um we were asked if if there was a possibility of developing the railroad. That's awesome.
So, and uh and also um you know with with Brian uh he had some experience as well. So, we we actually had worked with Brian a bit >> before his unfortunate passing. Um but we you know Connell did did finish that and it's been submitted. So, um, I think it's the very last DI that's going to be allowed into into the EF scale before it goes. So, >> we skid it into the finish line.
>> Yes.
>> That's really good. That's really good.
We're going to have an EF update in July. I think we have an update. He'll be on. So, I don't really know where we're at. I I know he's got a lot of work to do.
>> So, >> yes. Yeah, there is. You know, it's been a long process. I I've been on that committee I think more than six years.
>> Um >> Oh god, it's been seven years.
>> Yeah. And um >> you know it's it's pretty tedious work, but it's really important. And I kind of feel for the people like Jim and Tanya who are leading it and can't seem to get it get it out of their lives. It just kind of sticks around. So um you know hopefully we finish this up and it can be it can be used operationally. I think for 2027 is the hope and if not then 2028.
>> Okay. Okay. So Connell tell us about the Northern Mezanet project. Tell us all about that.
>> Yeah absolutely. So when we were trying to analyze a lot of these events um maybe pretty specifically the Ontario do that happened in 2022. uh it traveled from Windsor to Quebec City, impacted I think 40ome percent of Canadians because we all tend to huddle to the US border for warmth um essentially there. Um so when we were looking that we were trying to get access to weather station data from the area and turns out that was a harder task than we could have ever imagined. All of our weather stations in Canada are owned by different provincial and federal agencies here. And turns out governments don't like to talk to each other. Um especially uh when they're they're not working for the same province and things like that. Uh so we have over 3,000 weather stations in Canada, but you know uh accessing more than just the the typical airport stations is is kind of uh a large hassle and and and near impossible. So what we ended up doing was creating a mezznet portal that combined every weather station in Canada from these different federal and provincial agencies unifying the data quality controlling the data all to the same standard um giving advanced plotting tools and eventually it's our hope that this mezanet portal um because becomes everything you need past, present and future for weather. Um so going back and being able to look at historical events uh going and uh doing uh now casting as well as doing uh forecasting uh for the future. So we're we're continuously working on uh improving that and making it a uh open- source portal for um Canadians.
>> How many sites are we talking do you think you have? I mean >> uh about 3,000 weather stations. Uh we also have our own network of uh hail stations in the city of Calgary. Um, we have 30 of those with hail destrometers on them. So, not only are we working to bring in and unify all of Canada's weather stations. Um, but we're also looking to put out our own experimental stations with really high quality data to be able to pull in uh more info from these severe storms. Um, it's actually pretty funny. Um, so we have an API and uh you have to request access to it. And from that I know that five or six provincial agencies are using our website to look at their own data instead of whatever they have on on their back end there. So we're quite proud of that. Um and we hope to continue it building on it in the future.
>> So you said they all are different entities that own these. Do they have the same standard of calibration for temperatures, hydrometers, whatever it is, or do you have hodgepodge?
>> Absolutely not. Uh it's a hodge hodge podge city might be the nicest way I've ever heard that uh said. Um so one of the things we're pushing for and working with Environment Canada on is proper metadata on exactly what instruments they're using and what sort of calibrations that they're doing. Um so we're working on them on um getting that into I the WMO's Oscar standard um and making sure that all of that data is is readily available for anyone doing analysis on it.
>> Okay.
Hail sensors. Yes. Someone just messaged me. What is a hail sensor look like?
Tell me more.
>> Sure. So, the most simple way I can explain it, it's a metal plate with a microphone. Uh, so the harder the hail hits the plate, uh, the larger the hail size reading is. Um, it's it's obviously fancier than that, but, you know, when you come down to it, that's the the bare bones of it. It's a it's a piometer that we're able to use to um you know uh get a sense of how many hits we've gotten and the rough estimate size of those.
>> Ja.
>> Yeah. I have kind of a curiosity question. What's the furthest north latitude that Canada has reported a tornado?
>> Oh, Dave.
Well, um there there have been tornadoes in all three of our territories uh up up in, you know, north of 60, right? So, u yeah, I mean, >> and we we we continually get funnel cloud reports from Inuic, which is on the Arctic Ocean coast, but we have not been able to confirm a tornado there yet, but it'll it'll come. Uh someone will finally get a photo of the bottom part of the tornado, and we'll finally be able to confirm one there. But yeah, >> I like to brag that I've done the furthest north uh damage survey uh for for the tornadoes project here. Uh it was just north of 60 in Fort Smith Northwest Territories um in such a small community where I flew in and had to walk the rest of the way because there was no rental cars from there. So, uh happy to do it. Uh but yeah, still I think that that's at least the furthest north damage survey we've ever done.
>> Wow.
>> Mhm.
>> North of 60. Yep.
>> Yeah. You tend to run out of I mean we do a lot of detection of tornadoes using satellite imagery, but you tend to run out of trees at some point. It's a tree line.
>> Yeah.
>> And so there's not much to hit beyond that except very very scattered communities, small communities. And uh occasionally one of them, you know, someone sees like I said a funnel cloud and it'd be nice to be able to confirm one as an actual tornado, but haven't got quite there yet. But there have, like I said, there have been past events where we've been able to um confirm a tornado in um in each of the three uh northern territories, basically Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunit.
>> Wow.
Okay. So, I guess that's something we really wanted to talk about. Tell us about your revolutionary work, Connell.
What you're doing with satellites.
>> Sure. Um pretty wild, everybody.
>> Yeah. One one of my things is like the enhancer due to scale is great. Um but obviously there are things that after going on a few at least 100 damage surveys at this point there there have been some things that have come across that I've been like well what can we do to get an answer about what I've seen here or what I've seen here. Um and and one of those answers is through satellite. Um so we we've done a number of different studies. Um, one using some uh optical sensors and near infrared to get a sense of plant health in crops.
Uh, trying to take a look at, you know, we have a lot of tornadoes that just go through crops and nothing else, especially in the prairie areas. Trying to get a sense if we can use NDVI, so normalized difference vegetation index.
Um, that allows us to essentially get a sense of the chlorophyll in a plant before and after a tornado has gone through. Uh so that allows you to get essentially a plant health decrease metric uh for those uh plants and you know uh we had some success with that.
We found that only the really strong tornadoes uh show up in that signal. So that allows us if it just goes through crops where we're getting a really clear signal in that NDVI metric, we're able to say, okay, well maybe this is worth considering upgrading to at least an EF2. Um and then we've also used um some passive sensors as well, something called uh synthetic aperture radar, active sensor, sorry, synthetic aperture radar. Um essentially what that is is a measure of land roughness. So in the treated areas, funny enough, when a tornadoes goes through, it increases the land roughness in that area. It's kind of like squinting and looking at a static image on a TV. Um, so it hurts your eyes after a little bit, but you are able to do like the differencing of those images and get a clear sense of where those tornadoes uh might have gone through. Um, and we're again only really shows up in the really strong tornadoes.
Um, so when we using the tree, uh, we do sometimes have a problem going above EF2, especially in the shallow soils of the Canadian Shield. So having those extra tools allows us to get a more accurate sense of what potentially these ratings might be.
>> Okay. So this goes to both of you. Is isn't most of the tornadoes EF1 and EF2 less than AF2? Like 97% or am I wrong?
>> Uh 99% or EF2 or less?
>> That's okay. 99.
>> But it's you know it's not that different than than in the US really. Um we just get less of everything.
Okay. Because the season is so much shorter, right? But in the US, you know that you're your uh EF3, EF4, E5, they're a very small percentage of of the overall tornado count, right? Um you're going to get mostly EF0, although we probably don't get anywhere close in the US or Canada of recording all of them because it's very difficult to get all of the very weak tornadoes. But and that you see that with studies that are done. They don't tend to use EF zeros.
They usually start at EF1 >> because it's that's when the more significant damage starts to show up and it's we're pretty sure we're getting most of the EF1s and it's it's the same in the US.
>> Okay. So you're you're be able to rate you're able to work with the ground survey people Connell to do this or are you doing this sometimes even without ground survey folks?
Uh having ground survey is obviously great um for validation purposes. That being said, um the point of this was to try to develop technologies that work in really remote areas. Some areas of Canada are just frankly inaccessible to to humans at this point. Um so being able to develop these remote sensing tools allows us to get tornado ratings in areas where potentially we aren't able to get ground validation for.
>> This is incredible. So okay, I know this is pretty weird. So in a non-typical supercell on a QLCS, does this technique still work because the circulations are quite a bit different when you ground survey QLCS?
>> Uh yeah, I I would say um anything that does significant ground scour um to plants or uh knocks down a significant amount of trees uh would be detectable by either of those methods. Um that being said, definitely supercells are easier to detect. um just tends to be from my experience a wider damage path and and that always helps with the detection especially with the resolutions you're working at with these satellites.
>> Okay, this is a weather service uh person uh and he wants to know if you're working with Jim Leoo to implement this in the US.
>> Um the the satellite stuff we I haven't had a conversation with with Jim Leoo about. Um, we we've definitely had some conversations about the the debris flight modeling and and how we could potentially implement that uh into the the new forensic chapter of the EF scale. Uh, but but not the satellite stuff.
>> Is that a private vendor real quick? Is that is are you using geostationary?
What are you using real quick before Kim goes? Uh, >> geostationary. Yes, it is a private vendor. Uh, >> for for for the NDVI the the synthetic aperture radar is just from Sentinel.
>> Okay. Yeah, Kim.
>> Yeah, that's interesting. I've I've heard of at least one forecast office that did use NDVI um to to supplement some of what they were doing with damage surveys and they they found just a metric ton more tornadoes uh than they had gotten through other other methods.
So, um it's a really interesting idea how we're going to be leveraging remote sensing. It makes a lot of sense that in Canada you guys would turn to that since, as you said, lots unreachable. Um love that. I I um resident social scientist here. So I'm interested in some of the just population dynamics of of what's life, you know, tornadoes as part of culture and life in Canada. Do you feel like this is a part of the the is there a severe weather culture to speak of in these places where the tornadoes happen or you what are the warning systems like and how how do they compare against what we have here in the United States? Well, we um what we find is that the communities that are best prepared and best u uh engaged with severe weather are the ones that did get hit by a big tornado in the past. Um and that so that's you know few and far between. But the the ones like there's Barry Ontario that's been hit by a number of big tornadoes now including a big F4 back in ' 85 the big May 31st 85 outbreak. And um yeah, they they are very engaged with severe weather and um you know they they know all about uh preparations and and what to monitor and all that kind of thing. Other communities, say Toronto, they haven't had a major tornado in Toronto maybe in a century. Like it's it's that long. And they just it's just not part of the consciousness there as much as everywhere else around. And that that's got to do with the lake. The Lake Ontario really shadows shields Toronto a lot um from tornado incidents. Um, we had an uh right in the London area here, we had a um a bow echo go through on May 19th and uh it produced uh three tornadoes and uh a big downburst and um it was really interesting to see how it all came together. First of all, the university has a weather siren. It's one of the only ones in the country and I thought only campus could hear it but apparently I saw videos from all over the city and people were talking about the hearing this weather siren. So that happened. Um there were tornado warnings that went out on everybody's cell phones. So everybody was talking about that. Um and of course we're dealing with problems now with AI generated tornado photos.
So, as soon as the tornado warnings go out, then all of a sudden these fake tornado photos get spread online and uh this is becoming an increasing problem.
Last year we had one big example of that. This year we've already had five and it's only May. Um so yeah, the tools are there for AI generation now and um just simple. I mean, I I've tried it a couple times just to see how easy it is to generate something like I'm inside of a car looking through a rainy windshield at a tornado. What does it look like?
You know, and it produces something that's passable. So, this is what we're seeing now. And, you know, for us, it makes our our life harder. But for the severe weather forecaster who has to make a split decision on whe split-second decision on whether to issue a warning or not for hundreds of thousands of people, you're seeing these these AI generated photos of tornadoes.
What do you do? Right? So, um it's it's really um it's it's a challenging new world as far as AI goes. Um we've also uh to taken some cuts recently. Uh weather radio has been cut across the country. I don't know if Americans are are have heard about that. Um, so, you know, it's uh it was heavily used by people who are in remote areas, which there's a lot of in Canada in the summertime when you're back country camping and that kind of thing. In the cities, we've got it all on cell phones now and everything, so it's not as big a deal, but certainly people who have used it in remote areas are are missing missing that service now. Um, we've had a couple other cuts like uh our radar science uh radar scientists, the team of radar scientists supporting our new radar network got cut. So, you know, there are these cuts at the same time as we're trying to make progress on severe weather. Um, so yeah, it's right now there's a little bit of tension as far in the severe weather community uh as far as um you know, public safety goes.
there there's some things that are being developed that are increasing the the warning capacity or our ability to know ahead of time that tornado ingredients are going to come together. Um and then on the other hand there are some some tools like weather radio that are disappearing. So it's a it's a time of real change. Um another thing that's coming from Environment Canada is they're they're going to polygon warnings for the first time. I think we're only about 15 or 20 years behind you on that. But, uh, they're finally hopefully going there. Uh, >> maybe eventually.
>> Eventually. Yeah, it was supposed to be this month, but now it's pushed back again. Um, but yeah, you know, that will make be a big change, too. So, and it's a little different in the than the US in that um the watches and the warnings are issued by the the weather offices and there's there's only seven of them across the country. Um in Ontario for instance at the Ontario what they call they call them all storm prediction center. So the Ontario storm prediction center um they they have to monitor about 10 different radars >> uh that cover the domain right so it's a little different than in the US where every weather office has their own radar and you know they're just just looking at that radar. I'm sure you're looking at the other radars, too, but you know, you can actually control that radar and everything like that. In in Canada, it's you cannot control the radar at all. And uh they're all synced across the country every 6 minutes they're putting out a product. You can't control where it's looking or anything like that.
>> Who controls the radar?
>> Uh it's controlled centrally. Um >> like James Span has network control.
What control? Who's the controller here?
>> There there is no controller. It's it's set up to do a certain scanning task and that's it. It just does it. Winter, summer, doesn't matter. Every six minutes it spits out the data. Um so that's you know in some in some respects it's not it's not bad getting that six minute scan everywhere. Um but on the other hand having that control over you know what VCP to use and and these kinds of things uh it's important and we can't do it. Um and now with the radar scientists gone, we really can't try to improve um how we detect meyclones and this kind of thing. It's our our our radars that we got are really high quality Sband dual pole radars and so there's 32 of them across the country now that the installation just finished a couple years ago. Um but um you know that it's a it's a new kind of radar and uh for the company that built it as well as as as in Canada and uh it's going to take years and years to be able to get the most out of that like like it's taken decades to get the most out of the ADA network, right? Um but without a radar science capacity, that's that's more difficult. So, so yeah, like I said, there's there's there's uh some tension in the community right now about how things are moving forward and backward and and where we should land.
>> Yeah.
>> I'm curious, when the government signed on to acquire all of those radars, had there been a vision for how they were going to be used? How how were the decisions made to pursue dual pole as the upgrade in the first place?
>> Yeah. Well, I mean, Dupole was um was used kind of experimentally in Canada at a few radars um for for several years to evaluate it and then it was there was an upgrade done to the existing C-bands. Uh so that there were a number of radars that that did dual pole. Um and so the specification for these new Sband radars was that they have to have dual pole. So we we've got that right. Um but it's you know as you know it's it's not easy to to work with that data to keep it calibrated um to interpret it to to come up with detection algorithms that use it. Uh all these are on the science side and uh so you know environment is going to have this maintenance capabilities of course they're going to maintain the network and keep it running. It's just um you know when it comes to actually improving it from where it is now um we don't know how that's going to happen at this point.
>> Ja.
>> Yeah. Um, Kim had talked a little bit about tornado culture and tornado prone parts of Canada. And what always comes to mind is the guy, I think he was in Alberta that was just mowing his yard with that incredibly picturesque tornado behind him.
>> Where was that, Alberta? How how far north was that? Where's >> I'm pretty sure that was in Alberta.
Somewhere between Calgary and and um and Edmonton, I think. Um, and you know, they get their fair fair share of tornadoes there. But that's that's, you know, kind of a Canadian attitude. Yeah.
Just just keep going on.
We we get uh we get so many videos sent to us of of people that are not as panicked as they should be with a tornado right in front of them and taking video and sending it to us. It's like, um, you should have taken shelter there, just so you know. uh you know when the debris is in the air um you should be taking shelter. Uh so yeah I think there's uh you know can Canadians are very weather aare but I think they're also um you know it's kind of matter of fact too right like even severe weather it's like oh yeah this is this is part for the course.
Okay so let's get into the hail work that you guys are both doing. I don't know how you want to talk about it. I think people will be really amazed. You want to start Dave and or Connell? How you want all the hail projects that you guys do up there?
>> You want to take that uh K?
>> Yeah, sure. Um so our our northern hail project uh is is really focused in in what we're calling Canada's Hail Alley.
Uh it's it's the area east of the Rocky Mountains, uh the foothills there, uh kind of in between just a bit south of Calgary up to the the Red Deer area, which is just a bit south of Edmonton.
Um and and we're doing a few different things with that. Uh number one, we've had a field campaign going out there since 2022. Uh we send 8 to 10 undergraduate students plus a handful of graduate students out there every year to do a few things. number one, chase hail storms, collect hailstones, uh measure them, uh do chemical analysis on them and and that sort of thing. I think we have one of the largest collection of hailstones at at this point. Uh I I think we're approaching 10,000 at at this point over the past few years. Uh so so quite quite quite a a sample there. Uh we're also doing some UAV work or drone work out there. um trying to use multisspectral and thermal sensors to see if we can pick up and detect uh different characteristics of not only the hail but the crop impacts due to the hail. So we'll go back to site over and over with the the UAV with the multisspectral sensor to see how is this crop rebounding after being hit by this level of hail. Um and the other thing we're doing is damage surveys. Uh, one of the tricky parts with hail damage surveys is there's not a standardized scale to uh, give a sense of the intensity of a hail storm. So, that's something the team is actively working on. It's to create one of those scales, but to do that, we need a lot of data.
So, we're going out and doing as many of these damage surveys for hail as possible.
>> That's wonderful. I knew someone would eventually do this. I just didn't know who was. Apparently, it's you.
>> Well, we'll say it's not me. It's uh Simon Ang is the one and Julian Brimalow are the ones that are are really leading that charge. I'm just watching from a distance and kind of being glad that that one's not my project.
>> Okay.
>> It does turn out that um wind driven hail is the big hail problem. like you can have large hail and it will do some localized damage, but sometimes we get these bow echoes and uh even dos um where it's wind driven hail for hundreds of kilometers and then you're talking big insurance payouts. Um you know like the Calgary hail storm that uh what was that 2024 Connell?
>> Well, there was one in 2024 22.
>> There's a bunch but the big the big one was 2024.
>> Yeah. Yeah. the the 33.5 billion in >> How big was the hail?
>> It >> Yeah, it wasn't that big. It was um I think the >> golf ball size.
>> Yeah, golf balls, I think, were the biggest biggest hail, but it was wind driven hail. And um and so that that not only gets at the roof, but it gets at the siding. There was so much siding that was destroyed. So, it's it's uh it's an issue that they're they're learning more about is, you know, when when it's beyond just the shingles on the roof, which I think initially they thought that was the main problem, but now it's well, it's more than shingles.
It's also the siding, what kind of cladding you use and what makes the most sense in Alberta, you know, like vinyl, cheap vinyl siding just doesn't cut it.
So, >> I'll say cheap vinyl siding doesn't cut it anywhere, but >> anywhere. But that that that's my bias from doing a PhD specifically on vinyl siding and and real languing. Uh it's not a great material.
>> But that that hail stom is now in the top uh I think it's a top three uh natural costliest natural disasters in Canada.
>> It's it's second just behind the Fort McMurray wildfire.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Wow. Okay. And is there been other cases Dave where you saw wind driven driven hail of this kind of I mean is this more common than we knew about 25 years ago Ted Fuja? I mean is this >> I think so. Yeah. I mean we're studying another case right now that again in Alberta um where there was wind driven hail and there's one picture of a house where I mean there's there's no siding left on it. The roof is trashed and all the windows are broken. It looks like it's been through battle and um uh this this was something where there was just a wind driven hail for hundreds of kilometers and uh you know it's it's a kind of it's funny because it started as a supercell and it's like the RFD just really just takes over. So it's not a a long bow echo but it's like the RFD turns into a mini bow and it just goes and goes for hundreds of kilometers.
We're actually studying it as possibly a new storm type because it's so different than what we see everywhere else. Um, but really intense winds with the hail and yeah, it causes all kinds of problems.
>> Okay.
>> One of the other things we saw in that storm as well were transmission towers that were knocked down and and we were we were saying, well, what's the impact that the hail is doing in reducing the structural capacities of these transmission towers to to bend over um and fail? And we realize that uh this we might need a PhD student to figure this one out. Um but you know these these are the types of things we're we're starting to look at as well.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. So with several people have messaged me. You've mentioned a lot of cuts. There's lots of cuts. A lot of cuts weather. So what is your travel budget to go survey? I mean Canada is pretty is huge. I go to Canada every summer to Nova Scotia. I don't I don't even know. Has Nova Scotia ever had a tornado? Oh, yeah.
>> Okay.
>> I assume they had, but I didn't know.
>> Every province, every territory has had a tornado. Yeah.
>> Every >> everyone.
>> Okay. So, how do how is your budget to go survey in in the middle of wherever, nowhere, Canada?
>> Well, this is this is where uh a really unique situation uh comes into play. Um we are not funded by the government.
>> Okay. Um we and we're not really funded by uh the industry either. Uh this is um a donor who was a stormchaser and um wanted to do philanthropy but in the weather space and so was looking for you know what is what is the best way to maximize this investment and this this is really the money that's provided um the funding for the northern tornadoes project and then now it's uh the Canadian severe storms lab with so the agreement is for This Canadian Serious Storms Lab is $20 million over 10 years and that's that's from the donor. So, you know, this this is a whole new kind of uh endeavor, right? Um working with a donor to a university and getting getting this kind of work done, but it also frees up frees us up from all the political stuff, right? Um >> we're all blown away by what you just said, all of us.
>> It is very unique. Truly unique. Troy, you ever heard of this before?
>> Have not. Amazing. Simply amazing. This is great stuff.
>> Come on, Kim. Can we not find like a 20 million donor dollar donor somewhere?
Maybe, you know.
>> Yeah. Yeah. You know what? This same donor came to OU 10 years ago. He he was he was trying to seed projects all over.
And there was one that he seated here.
Kelvin Drogamire and I both were involved in in in helping uh get it off the ground. This this is a an incredible person who just loves our field so much and is justated by >> it. You know, we we had him on the show.
It's been a while, but he he was the founder behind that movie, the name of which I'm >> 13 minutes.
>> 13 minutes. Thank you.
>> Okay. you for that. Um, and have him on for that. And so he's the he's the person. Um, and he's he's I think he's an heir to the Thompson Reuters fortune.
Like he's part of the Thompson family.
>> Thompson. Yeah.
>> Has he been stormchasing?
>> Who's taken him stormchasing?
>> He knows. Oh, he's been >> He's very active.
>> I was gonna say I don't think anyone needs to take him stormchasing.
>> Yeah, he's he's well he's well taken care of.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. He he and I went stormchasing uh a couple years ago and got really got into a really nice situation in in Saskatchewan and beautiful tornadoes. So yeah, he he's very active chasing. In fact, we sometimes we have meetings set up that we're supposed to be talking about business and then we'll get a note from his people saying um he's not available. It's like okay, he's chasing.
Sure enough, he the but you look at the weather in the US and yeah, it's he's chasing. So yeah.
>> Yeah. Travis is a unique person. I'm so glad that you guys have had him to to back you, especially as the the winds have gone, >> you know, unfavorable overall. He's been in your sales >> and, you know, it's great to have that.
Um, >> I have a kind of fun story with with him. Um, when I first started at Environment Canada and I was, you know, into tornadoes and doing doing tornado damage surveys on the side, um, I would get this I would get an email from this person every time there was a tornado and can you send me the details? Can you send me the details? And, uh, it's like, okay. And, you know, I I don't know who this person is, but I I I I really sympathize with them because Environment Canada really wasn't great at providing details on what we were doing. And so, I was more than happy to share, right? And so, yeah, whenever he asked, I sent. And this went on for a while. And I only learned uh just in, you know, when we when we started the NTP that it was this donor and he was about 14 years old at the time and obsessed with tornadoes.
So, so yeah, uh you never know who's emailing you. And be kind to anybody that's emailing you.
>> And our pun master put something funny in the chat. Go ahead, James A. What did you write in there? Tell them that.
>> What's that? I never put anything funny in there.
>> We We're the last thing you wrote.
>> Oh, yeah. We just need a benefactor for traffic control during chases. Do you see some of that from can from Kansas?
That's nuts.
>> We don't have that problem in Canada.
>> I was going to say Canadian stormchasing hter hasn't hit that threshold yet.
>> No.
>> The are the biggest chasers out in Alberta, is that the big for Canada? Where are they, Dave? H well, you know, >> the prairies at least.
>> I think the oldest community might be in Ontario. Um I don't know if you know Ed and Jiren Bite. Uh they're longtime chasers. They've spent a long time chasing in the US and they're they're in Ontario. They probably have been chasing for 35 years. Um they have an immense collection of photographs. Um but yeah, there's there's a chasing there's a core chasing group in Ontario. Um, there's another one that's that's formed in Quebec and The Prairies is very active as well. Um, so yeah, I bet there's maybe 50 chasers across the country in Canada now that are really, you know, they're out there a lot. And, uh, that's that's a big change from even 10 years ago. Um, and certainly 20 years ago, there were maybe a handful.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. NTP actually has a a super contributor program um for stormchasers here in Canada um that have a history of good reporting and you know they provide a lot of information to us a lot of uh first uh reports of these events as they're happening uh especially you know with a staff of 13 people uh having those stormchasers out there and a good relationship with them has been really beneficial to try to get some of these reports in.
>> Yeah. Okay. So Ed in Molen, Illinois wants to know if you work with the US NSSL there, Dave. Do you work with them?
>> Um, we do. Um, I know Harold Brooks very well and, uh, we do a lot of work with Harold and, um, you know, I've known him for a long time. Um, and I've been down there a bunch of times. They've been here. Um, we actually have the director of the NSSL on the advisory council for the CSSL here in Canada. Um, so yeah, there's there's a lot of interaction. I mean, you know, that's one of the reasons we call it the Severe Storms Lab, Canadian Sphere Storms Lab is because there's a European Severe Storms Lab and of course the original, the OG NSSL uh in uh in the US. And so, you know, we we wanted to kind of position ourselves as, yeah, we're we're that center of excellence in Canada that the NSSL is in the US and the ESSL is in Europe. And um and yeah, we've been working working with um the the staff in the NSSL and ESSL um trying to set up our CSSL and we launched it in 2024. Um, and we had meetings before that with the NSSL folks. Uh, Al Gerard, um, who was in the leadership of NSSL, uh, Harold came up a few times. Harold's always been a big supporter. Harold and Chuck were both very big supporters of Canadian Meteorology. They were always up here giving us giving us support. So, it was it it was always great when when they came up.
>> Okay. What about your work and Environment Canada? Are you are they interested in what you're doing and using or what's going on there?
>> Yes. Um or you don't want to answer, you don't have to.
>> It's tricky.
>> I'm going to say on on the research side, NWS seems a lot more interested in the research that we're doing than Canada does in some respects. But >> that's the one one kind of interesting thing about Environment Canada. when you get to a certain level, there's not a lot of interest in in summer severe weather, it's it's like winter severe weather and modeling um is is is the big thing. And but when you talk to the forecasters and maybe a a manager above them or or two, it's mostly about the the severe severe weather in the in the summer. That's the big deal. So, you know, there's I think there's some gaps there. Um but certainly we we work with them and uh we want to work more with them and we've been trying to um trying to build that relationship since we started this um to ensure that they they they take us seriously number one um that took a while for because we're coming out of an engineering department at Western and not a meteorology department. So it took a while to build that credibility with them I think. I'm not even sure if it's 100% there at this point actually. Um even though we we've got so many severe weather scientists that work with us that are meteorologists. Um but it's it's a tricky thing. Governments are are tricky things to deal with. I I know from working there for 20 years um it's it's not easy. Uh in government uh it's it when I left government it was it was like a breath of fresh air. was so much more freedom to do do the things I wanted to do. Um so I know how hard it is in government and trying to find the right people to work with in government is is difficult. Um there there are there's an operational side to Environment Canada. That's the forecasters and the people who run the models on a daily basis and so on. And then there's the research side. And um you know I was on the research side when I was there even though I worked closely with the forecasters too. Um but each of those is a different animal. And so when we're working on agreements and trying trying to get collaboration, it's very different working with the research side and the and the operational side. They have their own >> biases and their own >> same here in the US.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, it it's been tricky and um you know, we we're just persistent and uh patient and you know, we we would believe that in the end it it makes sense for us to work really closely with them and >> what do you guys teach at Western?
You're an adjunct professor. So, meteorology, what what do you teach, Dave?
>> I don't teach anything at the moment, right? Like >> nothing.
>> I'm an adjunct professor in that I do a lot of supervision of grad students and um Okay. I can I can be on a a funding proposal and that kind of thing. Um we are talking about standing up um at least a graduate program in atmospheric science here at Western because we have this critical mass of of uh of staff and faculty and and in instrumentation and that kind of thing. Um but uh I don't I haven't taught I I have taught uh in the past. I just haven't while I was here.
It's been too busy trying to get the NTP and then the CSSL off the ground, but I I I imagine at some point I probably will. Um Connell's probably I think you >> What are you teaching? What What I I know Troy wants to take one of your uh engineering classes.
>> Honestly, nothing. Nothing. Um there's uh some weird union stuff about adjunct props right now um teaching at Western, so they don't really typically tend to ask us to teach anything. Um so I just get to focus on my grad students and my research. And honestly, that's kind of okay in in in some respects. So, um I imagine if if if they ever need someone to do a forensic engineering course, I'm happy to help. But as of right now, no.
>> Kim, what you got?
>> Yeah, I want to turn back to the the population side questions of this.
Something that we have quite a bit of in this country is myths that surround tornadoes and and a lot of natural phenomena. There are all kinds of explanations people come up with to to describe why a storm grows one place and not another. And these um notions can be taken up into the popular consciousness and even oral traditions built around them. You can't you wouldn't believe how many Indian burial grounds in this country protect different communities from tornadoes and things and it's it's just it's everywhere.
>> Is does this happen in Canada too? And if so, what kinds of things have you heard?
>> Sure. Um, yeah. Well, tornadoes don't hit cities and but they do hit mobile home parks. That's one we hear all the time. Um, of course, neither of them are are completely true. Um, and uh what are some of the other ones?
>> I I think because Canada is like we don't get as many tornadoes in the States. Um when a a community gets hit by multiple tornadoes year over year over year, you tend to see those communities be like, "Oh, we're cursed."
Like this is where all the tornadoes happen. Uh Ottawa being one of the maybe prime examples. We've seem to have like a pretty serious tornado there at least every year. Um and uh every time we go back to visit that community, uh you know, is kind of a oh not again. Um so I think that's one of the bigger ones.
>> But yeah, but even there in Ottawa, I think it's mostly just coincidence. like >> Yeah. No, for sure.
>> And it's the same thing in London just uh in the last month, we've had two um two tornado events. And so the question I keep getting from media is, well, we've had two already. Does that mean we're going to have a whole bunch this summer? You know, it's like, no, it's this is just coincidence. Um so, you know, it's those kinds of things. And also like uh rivers, they won't cross rivers. Um there was >> they don't go over mountains.
>> Yeah, they don't go over mountains. Uh there's the there's this myth of the malt that's called the molten split where it's like an area west of Toronto where everybody says that the storm split right there and they never get hit. You know, it's all this stuff, right? Um so yeah, we spend and actually one of the biggest ones that I find and I don't know, I'm not sure among this crowd where where people are in this, but um cold core funnel clouds is is another one. This is like this doesn't exist. And we've been trying to eradicate that from the vocabulary here for years, but you keep hearing it over and over again. Cold core farm.
>> What?
>> Well, you know, you get you get land spouts quite often in a in a cold core low situation where you've got a lot of popup convection. Some of it showers, some of it thunderstorms, all these interacting outflow boundaries. So you'll get storms popping up where boundaries are are interacting and then if there's any rotation there, it'll get stretched and you get a get a weak land spout, right? But and and you might not even get a lance boat. You might just get a sky full of uh various uh funnel clouds that don't don't quite reach landbo uh strength. So, you know, there was actually it was a forecaster from Michigan that that coined this term cold cold air funnels and and I think it was in the 70s because they had one day where they had a hundred reports or something of funnel clouds and he needed some way to explain this. So, he came up with this concept of co cold core funnels and and how how the the cold core itself was the cause of this and and so on. So yeah, this is one of the the things that we try to dispel. Um and it's hard because even even some of the meteorologists say that still. So um you know that that kind of thing, you know, it's like a Roger Edwards ism, you know, like he he's got a whole bunch of pet peeves. You know, don't say a tornado touchdown. That's not that's not correct. And that's it's true. And so I I try my best to to dispel some of those myths, but it's hard. Well, I was in New Finland two years ago. I could have swore Environment Canada put out a cold air funnel advisory.
>> They may have.
>> Is that possible or was I imagining this?
>> Well, that that's what it used to be called. and I managed to convince them to call it I think it's we didn't know what to do with it actually because the prairies were sometimes issuing I think they were issuing a tornado watch in those conditions and that that caused people to kind of be very alarmed when they did see these weak funnels. Um, so I think I think what the uh what the advisory is now is funnel cloud advisory to handle those situations and you know they're real situations. They do happen. The funnel cloud advisory does say that you know expect that you will see you could see funnel clouds today. Some of these could end up being um weak land spouts.
So don't you know don't dismiss them.
Take them seriously. But it's not your typical supercell catastrophic tornado situation. Right.
>> Okay. My big last question for each of you, I'm gonna turn over to Eagle, is what is the biggest research both of you are working on right now? What is your big your top one or two big research things you're doing right now? So, whoever wants to go.
>> Yeah, I'll go. Um, definitely uh the debris flight modeling for me is is still a big thing. Um, obviously we uh used it for the Enderland event uh to determine the lofting of that train car, but there's advances that we want to make uh as well. Right now the big one is multi- trajectory debris analysis um and implementing it into GIS software as well. So that we can actually have a simulated tornado follow the actual center line of the tornado. And if you have three or four or five things that have been thrown in different directions in that property, being able to track them simultaneously, um, because the more pieces of debris that you have, you're actually able to get more information about the tornado and narrow down the potential ranges of things like the swirl ratio or the core radius size and and things like that. So, that's that's definitely my number one uh right now is is continuing on uh that trajectory for for lack of a better word. Uh and and there's there's lots to be done in in that area. So, I'm I'm pretty sure I'll be here for a while.
>> No, I'm amazed everything you're doing.
I'm following your stuff. You're you're a rockstar, Connell.
>> Thank you. I appreciate it.
>> Dave, what are you researching? What are you going to wow the Weather Brains listeners? What are you working on right now?
>> Yeah. Well, I mean, we've got so much going on. Sometimes it's uh it's hard to keep track of it all. Like in my whole career, I've never had so many papers in the air, you know, being juggled at the same time as right now in my career. So, it's it's been really um really productive, I'll say. But what uh what I'm leading as far as my research uh right now, I'm looking at uh tornado uh occurrence trends in Canada. And it's really interesting. um we've got data back to 1980 and that it's it's high qual high quality database back to 1980 now. And so I've split up the data into two periods um and uh looked at what changes from the earlier period to the later period and it's pretty clear that there's this um eastward shift. Imagine that. Does that sound familiar? Uh that's very very similar to what's happening in the US.
>> Yes. Um yeah, uh the prairies the the number of tornadoes on the prairies has gone down and the number of tornadoes in Ontario and Quebec has gone up. And um I thought maybe that this was due to the fact that we're we're a lot better now uh because of the the Northern Tornadoes project at detecting tornadoes in forested areas and a lot of those end up being in Ontario, Quebec. So, I thought that might have been the cause, but even if you remove those, there's there's a a significant change that's gone on. So, um that's that's one thing. Um is that that eastward shift. Um the other thing that's been found in the US as far as a long-term trend is um the number of tornadoes hasn't changed, but the number of day tornado days has gone down. The number of tornadoes on tornado days has gone up. So, you may have heard this. Harold Brooks has been involved in some of this work. Um, and I looked at that in Canada and it it just is not there. So, we're we we're not seeing that that change even though we are seeing this eastward shift. So, uh that's that's interesting. Um, and another thing that we've looked at is how things are changing seasonally. So, one of the one of the anecdotal things that have come out of being a lot at the weather office, uh, when I was in Environment Canada is that the forecasters would say, "We used to get the big tornadoes in in the late spring, early summer. Now we're getting them in late summer, early fall." And so, it's of course, you know, something like, uh, hey, I got to have a look at this and see what's going on. And sure enough, it was the case. Um, the the big tornadoes are happening later in the year. Um, and I looked at Michigan and Ohio next to us, New York State. It's not happening there. So, there's something about southern Ontario, uh, that's that's changing and still haven't quite figured out exactly what it is. Um, I we may have got a clue last year, though, because last year, uh, it was really quiet in southern Ontario. We only had five tornadoes, which is really, really low for southern Ontario. Might have been the lowest that I've ever seen in a southern Ontario. Um, and uh, we thought it was just overall a quiet season. But at the end of every year, we we use satellite imagery and scan all of the forested areas across Canada. So, this is this takes hundreds of hours to do, but we found 29 tornadoes in the forest that we didn't know about. And suddenly our our quiet season turned into a fairly busy season. And what it meant was that, you know, in the southern part of Ontario, it was very warm. We didn't get a lot of storms. Everything was happening farther north and um we just we just couldn't keep on top of all the storms that were going on. We didn't we don't get many reports up there, right?
So that that's why we do this review at the end of the year. So, so you know, if that's going to be the case in the future where a lot of activity is happening in the forested areas and not much is happening in southern Ontario, um, that's that's certainly going to change our our climatology.
>> All right. So, so I've got to ask, so tornado warnings are issued by the Meteorological Service of Canada, correct?
>> Yes.
>> Yeah.
>> Do do they keep verification statistics on their warnings?
Well, when I when I worked at >> Be honest, be honest.
>> When I worked at Environment Canada, uh I was working, you know, on tornadoes and I I never saw verification stats.
And uh >> I if they were keep if they were keeping them, they weren't sharing them. So when we started this project, the Northern Tornadoes project, uh once we had uh once we were a few years in and had quite a bit of tornado data, uh actually it was it was Travis, the donor that kind of pushed this idea. It's like you guys got to do the verification on tornado warnings like, okay, uh this is going to be contentious, but we'll do it. And um because I knew the I knew the results were going to be bad. Uh and sure enough, they were. Um, so we we basically developed a report card and used the internal targets of Environment Canada, which aren't which are pretty modest for lead time and pod and um to to come up with a score and it was a miserably failing grade the first year we did it. Um, but we made a bunch of recommendations about look, number one, you couldn't you couldn't get a better score unless you issued more. There was just no way. So that was one of the recommendations is you've got to issue more warnings and more watches in order and tornado watches and warnings uh in order to improve these scores. And lo and behold, the next time we did the report card and just a year later, they had doubled the the number of tornado warnings and tornado watches across Canada and suddenly they had a passing grade.
>> So you know this this is this is what we wanted, right? We want to try to be part of the solution and and certainly you got to have the numbers to know how well you're doing, right? Especially the forecasters, if you're just forecasting without any verification, you're just forecasting into into the air. It's that you're not you don't get any feedback.
You don't know how well you're doing.
So, I think the forecasters really appreciate having those numbers and knowing how well we're doing as a country and and uh knowing, you know, based on our recommendations where we might be able to improve. And we did another report card after that and it was even further improved. So you know we think that this is this is all good.
Um we did publish a paper on this and um I one of the things I wanted to do was compare it to the US but a fair comparison. So we we just did the northern tier of states. uh we felt that was fair comparison and um and just plotted it on a performance diagram and uh where we are with Environment Canada and the success of tornado warnings in Canada is where the US the National Weather Service was in the 80s. So we've got a lot of work to do. But you know we we've got the science, we've got the radars, we you know we we can do this and we we can improve. We just have to know where to aim and uh and I think the work we're doing I think is part of the solution and we're we're trying to make make that point to Environment Canada. They they didn't like this coming out of course um especially when the media got a hold of it but um I think over time they they'll appreciate that that you know um that this was done and that we're improving uh the scores overall are improving the service is improving.
>> Excellent. Moving in the right direction. That's good. And speaking of moving, fellas, we have to take a quick break. We're going to hear from Tony Rice, his astronomy report. We're going to hear from Jen. And this week in tornado history, we're going to come back with picks of the week. Connell and Dave, we're going to need a pick of the week from you guys. Something weather related that's really cool. Okay, you got time to think about it. So, let's hear from Tony and Jen. And we will be right back with much more as Weather Brains rolls along.
Looking beyond the atmosphere, here's Tony Rice with your astronomy outlook.
>> This week, make a point to step outside after sunset because two of the brightest planets in the night sky, they're putting on a show for you.
Throughout this first week of June, brilliant Venus and Jupiter are drawing closer together each evening in the western sky. Tonight, June 1st, they're a bit less than 8° apart, about the width of three fingers held at arms length. By the weekend, that gap's going to shrink to less than 3°. And by next week, the pair will be only about a degree and a half apart, or a bit more than the width of your pinky. The best part of this event, though, is watching it unfold night by night. Unlike a meteor shower or eclipse, you have to be out at a specific moment. And weather permitting, it's going to be hard to miss. The planets visibly change position from one evening to the next, and that allows you to watch the solar system in motion. To see them, head outside about 45 minutes to an hour after sunset and look towards the west northwest horizon. Venus is going to be impossible to miss. Shining brightly at magnitude minus4. Jupiter will appear slightly dimmer up and to the left.
Clear western horizon free of trees and buildings. That's going to give you the best view. No telescope is required here. In fact, conjunctions like this are best enjoyed with a naked eye.
Though, a pair of binoculars will make the view even more impressive. And by June 8th, both of those planets will easily fit within the same binocular field of view. The closest approach occurs on June 9th when Venus and Jupiter appear just a degree and a half apart in the constellation Gemini. Those two stars you've been watching in the upper right, those are Caster and Pock, the twin stars in Gemini. Despite appearing side by side, though, Venus is about 100 million miles from Earth right now. And Jupiter, it's about six times farther away. So each evening that gives you clear skies this week, take a few moments out to watch Venus catch up to Jupiter. It's a beautiful reminder that the night sky is not static. The planets are constantly moving and sometimes the geometry aligns to create a show that's easy for anyone to enjoy. That's your astronomy outlook. Follow me at RTP Hokei for more spacey stuff like this.
This week in tornado history, only a few weeks after the Joplin tornado, a very strong long track twister made its way across parts of Massachusetts on June 1st, 2011. The path length was just shy of 38 miles and the maximum width estimated at a half mile. peak wind speed at 160 miles per hour. The tornado developed in the Munger Hill section of Westfield, damaged primarily to trees.
Many were uprooted or snapped and the roof of the elementary school was also damaged. It intensified in West Springfield. Several buildings lost their roofs and a few structures collapsed. The tornado then crossed the Connecticut River adjacent to the Memorial Avenue Bridge and into the city of Springfield. Here, the tornado produced extensive damage on the south side of the downtown area where many homes were destroyed. The tornado also produced severe structural damage to town homes and apartments near Springfield College. In the Island Pond section of Springfield, Cathedral High School in St. Michael's Academy sustained significant damage. The tornado also moved directly through the town of Monson. Several homes and the high school were destroyed. There was a total of three fatalities. A 39year-old woman in West Springfield was killed when her house collapsed on her while she sheltered her 15-year-old daughter in the bathtub. A 23-year-old man was killed when his van was crushed by a falling tree. And a 52-year-old woman in Brimfield was killed when the trailer home she was living in was thrown 35 ft into the air. It was estimated that 1,400 houses and at least 78 businesses were either damaged or destroyed. 200 residential buildings were condemned and more than 300 rental units were lost throughout Western Massachusetts. Nearly 10,000 acres of woodlands were destroyed. In Springfield alone, 7,500 mature trees were uprooted or destroyed.
We have a detailed summary about this event at tornado talk.com.
>> All righty. So, we want to do a little look ahead here. What are the next uh three episodes? And notice the dates here, John Gordon. We got a a twofer, right?
>> Yeah. So, next week, Bill uh has got the project enki uh with Brad and Tracy. James A. Uh, we have the Dallas Fort Worth group. That's a Thursday. You want to say anything about that, James A?
>> It's going to be awesome. And they'll just be starting a streak of about what?
65 days of 100 or higher. Another summer in North Texas. Troy will know.
And then we go June 22nd. Jen, what's that all about?
>> So, we're going to do a homegrown show.
A lot of times we don't plan those, but this time we're going to plan one. Um, our listeners love these and I thought we would do something a little different and kind of just go talk to all the panelists and give a life update. You know, we talk a little bit about what's going on with our life and our jobs or whatever. U, but we don't ever get a chance to explore that and and let people in a little bit more about what we're doing. So, we're going to do uh do that on June 22nd. And of course, there will always be time >> for rants. So, we will make sure that we get our our rants as well. So, uh but it should be fun. And I just I love the homegrown shows. They're a lot of fun.
>> And um you know, we we try to get Neil Jacobs on, but uh he's going to be out of the country, but he was in Norman today. And so he got to see two of our favorite people. Kim, what was it? Just you didn't probably see him for very long, right, Kim? But how's it going?
>> Yeah. No, he he had he messaged us in our email thread like, "Hey, yeah, Kim and Rick should stop by this data assimilation workshop I'm dropping in at." and you know Rick and I are super into data assimilation. This is our particular gifting in this world. So we we sat outside uh of the of the workshop and stalked him and I was like we we've seen him in Norman now like twice in the last month month and a half something like this and he always has his flag aid with him. Um you the person who like escorts him around and everything. It's the same person who came the last time and she was sitting outside the room and Rick and I were nudging each other like she's gonna think we're stalkers. She's She absolutely thinks we're stalking him. But he he you know he saw us. He ran over and oh my gosh I bet I'm sure he does this everywhere he goes. He's got friends everywhere. You can see her with the other crew and they just kind of step aside like, "Oh, here he goes.
He's going to go talk to these people and hug these people, be his ridiculous self." But he he is very excited to join us and give us an update at some point. though um being in Geneva would be difficult. He'll have to miss out on our homegrown. But he did give us the promise. He he does listen to our show still even though I miss when he would he would live text me, you know, on Monday nights while he'd be watching it. Um even if he couldn't join while working now, he's just so busy that he doesn't often get to it live.
But he does get our recording still. So hi Neil, we love you, man. We're supporting you and we're excited when we whenever we can get him on, we just said, "You know what? We'll drop whatever we've got going or you'll just blend right into the show, but you can certainly be a feature whenever you can make it."
>> Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. We miss you, Neil. And and can't wait to have you on, get an update. And so, we're looking forward to that. All the shows coming up. Email at weatherbrains.com to get your questions to us about uh you know, anything. Let us know about your uh suggestions for shows. Uh if you have, you know, picks of the week for us, whatever it may be, questions for our guests as well, email at weatherbrains.com.
>> Just real quick, so just for the future, Dave Sills, we're gonna have a 50th anniversary of the Topeka show. We've got the 50th anniversary of the Big Thompson coming.
>> So we got a Dust show. We've got Jim Leoo on the EF scale coming up. We got Rob Marciano coming. We got a monsoon show. So all these are coming. So I hope you pay attention up there north of the the border. Yeah, sounds good.
>> All right, let's do picks of the week.
Everybody is going to share something that is really cool. This can be a website, data source, hardware, software, anything remotely weather related. And Troy Kimmel, let's go to Austin, Texas, and begin with you for your pick of the week.
Hello.
Hello.
mute. Troy, you're on the mute.
>> There we go. Um, I've used Cowboy State Daily before. Um, and I liked it just because it's out in the west in Wyoming, but a picture by their reader, David Bell, out near Pinedale, Wyoming. Uh, this was taken last Friday afternoon, the 29th. Um, really neat, neat picture.
Iridescent of cloud rainbow essentially in sapform type cloud cover. Absolutely beautiful uh picture taken by David Bell and it was in the Cowboy State Daily.
That's my pick of the week.
>> And all of these picks will be up on the website weatherbrains.com under the show notes for this week's episode. Jen Namura, what's your pick of the week? I am very fascinated with that Edmonton tornado and I actually tackled putting together a narrative for tornado talk um a couple of years ago and so my pick of the week is that um it was the day that became known as Black Friday July 31st 1987 one of the most powerful tornadoes in Canadian history and correct me if I'm wrong guys but it was the second deadliest for the country >> I think that's right yes >> yeah so I I went through I found a lot of uh papers um I and correct me on this one too if I'm wrong, but this event led to the development of the Alberta's emergency public warning system >> and that was implemented in 1992. So, a lot of things came out of that tornado.
Um, there were over 300 injuries and 27 fatalities.
>> Indeed. All right, James ate a lot.
What's your pick of the week?
My pick of the week is the from uh that great IM cow web page and all the parameters are in there for tornado warnings and LSRs in Oklahoma in May.
And May 27th, we had two landspout tornadoes, both probably within 10 miles of the state of Texas. And only one time in Oklahoma weather records have we gone zero for the month of May for tornadoes.
And oh, by the way, there were only two tornado warnings in Oklahoma as well.
Neither of those verified, and the two that did verify with land spouts were not warned. So, it happens. Not that Southeast Oklahoma's got great radar coverage.
>> It does happen. Uh, all right, Kim, give us your pick of the week. We can't wait.
>> Yeah. So, my pick of the week is breaking news. I think a lot of our >> breaking news.
>> Yep. Breaking news.
>> Well, hang hang. CBS radio's gone out of business, so this means even more now.
So, C CBS radio went silent. Uh, that's so sad. But, so let's bring in the breaking news bulletin.
>> We interrupt this program for a CBS radio net alert bulletin.
>> Oh my goodness, this world. Um but okay, breaking news.
Thank you very much, Span. We have news out of um Colorado where there had been a lawsuit filed by UKAR to try to keep the government from parceling apart Encar and that lawsuit had been broadspanning. So, to my understanding, we've gotten at least a news news about a piece of all the dismantling the supercomput um that Encar manages that's in Wyoming.
Um a judge put a stay essentially saying while this is adjudicated, nothing can go on like all the breaks should be applied. We don't see the reasoning for this demonstrated by the by the defendant and you know UKAR has already suffered great harm from the existence of this thing to begin with the public interest to just pause. So there's a lot that's been going on with it. There are a lot of pieces that the the you know the administration sought to move around and some of that could still go on but um at least one piece the most pressing piece because this had been something where the um NSF had said we're doing this now yesterday it's got to get done and that's when Ukar immediately slapped the lawsuit down and said stop. Um at least this immediate piece has a stay.
So, more to come with the story, but given the ruling, and I think this had been sort of an anticipated outcome, given the arguments that were made about a month ago, um the questions that were asked by the judge, um but given this ruling, I think there's there's hills to climb for NSF to pursue the dismantling of Encar that they plan.
>> Indeed. Excellent. Again, breaking news you only get on this podcast. All right, John Gordon, go. You're up on.
>> Yes, sir. Well, there was breaking news in Denver with golf ball hail today. Uh, and I'm going to follow Troy's theme for my Canadian brothers to the north.
Rainbow at Jasper National Park with a giant elk >> at the lake. You seen this, Dave?
>> It's beautiful.
>> A big old big old elk and a rainbow. Two for one. Love to go to Canada to see my elk and moose. That's my pick of the week.
>> Outstanding. Okay, Dave. Uh, we've stalled long enough. We're going to turn it over to you. Give us something good.
Pick of the week. Go.
>> Uh, yeah. Well, I've got some breaking news, too. And that's, uh, I got to get published today on the Canadian tornado climatology. So, sorry, a bit, but this was like years of work put into this.
>> There's some breaking news, James.
>> And it got more >> more breaking news.
>> Uh, so it's published in in a Canadian journal called Atmosphere Ocean. And um yeah, this is this is the data set that goes back to 1980. And um it explains how we we developed the data set, what what data sources we used. Um and it it actually comes up with a we do a a a 30-year tornado climatology in Canada where we so that lets us know what the average is for number of tornadoes a year in Canada and that kind of thing.
So the last we updated every 10 years.
So, the last one went from um was 1980 to 2009. And this this one uh is goes from 1991 um to what 2020. So, uh new 30-year climatology and lots of goodies in there like um you know the longest longest tornado track and mean lots of means, lots of lots of fun facts in there too.
Um, but uh definitely that was a lot of work and very happy to see that published today.
>> Congratulations. That's outstanding news. All right, Connell, you're up.
Give us a good pick of the week.
>> All right. Well, if Dave gets to be self- serving, I guess I will be, too.
>> Yeah.
>> The uh the Canadian Meznet portal uh messo.cssl.ca for those interested. Uh in the last few weeks, we just launched our severe storm summaries. Uh so what that is, it's a historical look back uh and it's automatically cataloging things like thunderstorm outlooks from us as well as environment Canada as well as where were their weather stations reporting severe weather. Uh eventually the uh tornado database and our hail database will be accessible from there. Uh a map of the lightning in the area. Um some radar products from NSSL like the mesh and the rotation tracks. all of those uh to give you a day outlook of where was there severe weather in Canada. All automated, all just feeding in. Uh so we're we're quite excited to see that launch.
>> Excellent. Good deal. All these pics will be up on weatherbrains.com. Connell and Dave, anything else we need to plug while you're here? Any any websites, social media, anything? Here's your chance. Plug away.
>> Um well, one thing that I'd like to plug is our dashboard. So anytime we have new tornadoes, it goes right up on our dashboard. It's all open source and um it's got all of our data going back to the beginning at 2017 and so you can slice and dice the data, plot what you want. Uh so it's at um uwo.ca/dashboard and uh like I said open data for everybody to uh to have a look at. Um and one other thing is uh we've got a a community radar suite in Canada that's called Instant Weather Pro. And Instant Weather is a is a company in Canada that um that we work with closely that they have a huge community on Facebook and they provide so many reports for us, severe weather reports that actually often initiate our investigations. Um so we we actually provided some seed money for them to develop a radar suite because outside of um Environment Canada, we didn't have any software to view our our radars. um you can see them on radar scope and that kind of thing, but there wasn't a kind of Canadian app to look at our our Canadian radars and um you know uh have that Canadian context. So they developed this and uh if you look up IW Pro, you can subscribe to it and actually has access to all the American radars too. But this is certainly a a service that was not available uh until uh we worked with Instant Weather on this. So now now basically all all of the tools that Environment Canada forecasters have had for decades uh now are can be in the hands of anybody in the general public in Canada.
>> Excellent. Connell, anything else we need to plug on your end? Anything else?
>> Uh not really. Uh we have meo.cssl.ca.
That's our messet portal. Uh, and if you're interested in reading about any of the trajectory stuff, if you want to take a deep dive into the math or the statistics on that, uh, the article is called Estimating Wind Speeds in tornadoes using debris trajectories of large compact objects. You can find it at monthly weather review and we'll get those up in the show notes as well. And it's been a great show. And for those that are new here, we're typically on the air Monday nights at 8:00 Eastern, 7:00 Central.
youtube.com/weatherbrains.
Most of you listen to the audio version.
If you watch, if you listen, hey, thank you. And again, if you want to get in touch with us, anything we talked about tonight, anything we talk about in the future, let us hear from you. The email address, it is emailed at weatherbrains.com. So, on behalf of the entire Weatherbrains crew, I'm James Span. Thanks for listening. Have a great week and God bless.
>> Great show, gentlemen.
>> Outstanding. Excellent.
>> You guys are so >> you all was wonderful.
>> You guys make it easy.
>> Yeah, it was fun.
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