Investigators have confirmed a tornado occurred on Saturday afternoon at Canadian Forces Base Borden.
A video posted to Facebook on Saturday afternoon showed what appears to be a white funnel cloud forming and reaching close to the ground near the military base, located about 20 minutes west of Barrie.
Investigators for the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP), based out of Western University in London, Ont., were in the area yesterday trying to determine if it was a tornado.
“The survey was able to find a short track of EF-0 damage,” they posted on their website.
An EF-0 tornado is the lowest classification, with winds of 104 to 137 kilometres per hour.
An NTP ground survey was completed on June 23 documenting “weak tree damage and roof damage to a low-rise building.”
The tornado had an estimated maximum wind speed of 115 km/h, a track length of 1.54 kilometres and maximum path width of 290 metres, according to the researchers.
The tornado direction of travel was from the west-northwest, they say.
No injuries have been reported from Saturday's severe weather.
The nearby village of Angus last experienced a serious tornado on June 17, 2014, when 103 homes sustained damage from an EF-2 tornado and close to a dozen had to be replaced.
Barrie is also no stranger to tornadic activity, either. On July 15, 2021, an EF-2 tornado left a trail of destruction in the city’s south end, leaving dozens of houses uninhabitable.
The city was also hit by a deadly tornado on May 31, 1985. Eight people were killed and hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. It was one of the worst tornadoes in Canadian history.
