Canada's tornado count below average this year, a sign of what's to come?
theweathernetwork.com
Wednesday, December 4, 2013, 9:00 AM -
Canada's tornado count was below average this year with around 50 tornadoes confirmed or reported in 2013. The yearly average for the country is around 62 tornadoes.
Is this a sign of what's to come in the future? Weather Network meteorologist Dayna Vettese weighs in.
Q: How did the tornado season shape up this year?
Dayna: The Prairie provinces’ tornado count was slightly below average this year, but they did see their fair share of tornadoes with close to 15 in Saskatchewan. There was even a confirmed tornado in New Brunswick this year. Ontario’s season in 2013 is above average with 22 confirmed tornadoes and the yearly average being around 12. It was a bit of an odd season in Ontario. Not necessarily your conventional types of severe weather setups where we got these tornadoes including the November 23 tornado near Charleville, Ontario (near Prescott) where there was actually snow occurring during the time of the tornado!
Q: What are the main factors for a less active season?
Dayna: Tornadoes occur on a very small scale when we look at the grand scheme of weather over a global basis. Every year we get various weather patterns and cycles that set up and the patterns that occurred this year led to an overall below average year for Canada, but above for Ontario.
Q: Do you think Canada will continue to see less and less tornadoes each year? Is this a sign of what's to come?
Dayna: I don’t think we can make that assumption as there has been no conclusive studies done to link climate change to over or under active tornado seasons. I believe the seasons will continue to vary from year to year as they always have with some years having devastating outbreaks and other years being quiet.
Q: How does the Canadian season compare to the U.S. this year?
Dayna: Both the U.S. and Canada experienced a below average year for tornado count. On average the United States sees 1253 tornadoes. In 2013, so far about 760 have been confirmed in the U.S.
Count as of: December 3, 2013
Note: These are *unofficial* numbers. Several are based on reports.
