Canada Trip.co.uk

While you’re out in Canada, usually there’s at least one day with interesting weather – especially if you’re in the great lakes region. By interesting i can mean thunder storms. If you’re interested in weather – Canada really is a great destination to visit. It gets pretty much everything that weather can dish out through the coarse of a year, and so while out there why not get your forecasts and weather news from Canada’s most reliable weather channel? Trust me, if you’re in a region with a storm watch, and you love weather – The weather network can add that little extra excitement!

I’ve been in southern Ontario about three times when storm warnings and tornado warnings have been in force in my area and the weather network provides you with updated information and eyewitness accounts of everything that’s happening when it’s happening. None of those documentaries which were common in the 1990s which taught you all about tornadoes or hurricanes can really ever be as useful or fun to watch than this channel during a storm.. and all the time that added buzz you get from actually being there as it’s happening!

I have to say, i love powerful weather events, and i am one of those people who loves to see the power and beauty of nature – one of the reasons Canada is my favourite place in the world! The first year i went in 2005, amazingly we were in a tornado warning zone. Now for those of you who haven’t visited – a Watch is when tornadoes or severe thunderstorms are probable in the area, and are likely to occur. A Warning is when there are confirmed Tornadoes or other severe weather in the area and you should take precautions.

Before i go on, because i can get a little carried away with my love for all things stormy – please don’t be scared! Although i have experience with Tornadoes (as you will see in a moment) it’s not common, and it was only my sixth visit to Canada on a particularly stormy day across Canada that i got to see my first one. The difference between the UK and Canada is that Canada knows how to handle bad weather – in the UK we just stop functioning!

As you can see from the pretty photo up at the top of the article, There was a heck of a lot of dark cloud about .. but the odd thing was that it wasn’t like that earlier in the day and the whole sky changed very quickly.
We had both been to Newmarket, and been at Upper Canada Mall – to take the photos for our article on it – and we had headed back to Wendy’s (A large burger chain in north America) to eat. It was while we were eating some very heavy rain came over, so we waited until it died down a little, finished our food and headed out to the car and set off back towards where we were staying.
In the UK this year we’ve had some pretty heavy rain, but trust me when i say the rain in Canada can be incredibly heavy – as if you had just had a bath full of water thrown on you.. and that’s what happened. It started to throw it down with rain once more.

It was raining so hard, the windscreen wipers couldn’t cope so some very cautious driving occurred from all on the road – Have a look at the video.. unfortunately this was when the rain was pretty light at the side of what it was, but it gives you an idea of how heavy it was..

Eventually we came to a store and we pulled in simply to wait for the rain to pass. As you can see from the video – even though it was 5pm in Summer, it had got very gloomy.. but eventually the rain subsided, only to reveal an interesting cloud which looked like it was forming a cone. We watched it as it seemed to be building – it almost appeared as if there was an invisible cooling tower pumping out steam, as the cloud’s tip seemed to be twisting and blowing upwards. It’s size grew and it got more pointed. We decided it was probably best to move, since from what we could see the funnel cloud was heading our way – and it’s when these clouds meet the ground a fully fledged tornado is born. We set off and i snapped the photo you see above – we eventually lost site of the cloud through yet another barrage of rain.

The first thing we did when we got on was turn on the Weather Network. From having watched it earlier, we knew we were supposed to have chance of severe thunderstorms, but there hadn’t been any watches or possibilities of tornadoes when we first set off to New Market, however by the time we had got in – the whole area had been bathed in a Tornado Warning, so there were tornadoes on the ground out and about in our area!

Now, i get excited, and that’s simply as I’d love to be a storm chaser – stupid as that may seem.. But i am not stupid enough to not understand that this kind of weather can be very dangerous and can ruin lives – So, what should you do if you’re in the same situation as we were?

If you’re staying in a Hotel, head down to reception and find out what their plan is – they will have all the information you’ll need to know to sit out the next hour or so of the warning
If you’re in another building – The advice is to make sure the windows are all closed and go into the lowest floor of the house – usually the basement, though if a basement isn’t available in the building – a room with as few windows as possible, and with as many walls from the outside as possible will do.

We headed to the basement and played Nintendo Wii for a bit! Remember, the chances of a tornado heading your way are very slim so my advice is stay calm, and just enjoy the excitement – The UK has boring weather it either rains, or it’s cloudy! And you’ll have something to tell people when you get home! The Weather Network will keep you up to date with what’s happening and entertain you through the storm.

If any of our readers have experience with tornadoes and advice they want to share with other readers please leave comments and I’ll have them published, so keep having a look back now and then!

So there you have it! Canada, an awesome country with amazing weather! Check out the Weather Network for all your forecasts wherever you’re staying in Canada. I usually have a look at the 14 day trend two weeks before i head out to see what the weather will be like! http://www.theweathernetwork.com/ You can also find videos of the latest weather news, active weather and weather forecasts for your holiday destination.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Canada Trip.co.uk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.