Southern Ontario Tornado Outbreak of 2009

The Southern Ontario Tornado Outbreak of 2009 was a series of severe thunderstorms that spawned numerous tornadoes in Southwestern Ontario, Central Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) on August 20, 2009, and was the largest single-day tornado outbreak in Ontario history and the largest in Canadian history. During the afternoon and evening, 19 tornadoes touched down with four of them producing F2 damage. One F2 struck the town of Durham where significant damage occurred and one person was killed; two F2s struck the city of Vaughan, just north of Toronto, damaging hundreds of homes; another F2 devastated apple orchards and resort areas near Thornbury. The number of tornadoes associated with this event surpasses that of August 2, 2006, which saw 18 documented tornadoes. In addition, it was one of the most destructive and costly tornado events ever in the province, and included one fatality, one of only a handful of deadly tornadoes in Ontario's recent memory. At one point, over 10 million people in Southern Ontario, one-third of Canada's population, were placed under tornado watches and/or warnings as the storms rolled through.