I’m still recovering from a scary experience that I had at about 5:30 this evening here in Toronto.
It was supposed to be a beautiful day and for the most part it was, at least up until 4:30 or so when the skies started darkening. The weather forecast had said that we were expecting a thunderstorm this evening, so naturally I just thought the storm was approaching. Little did I know that by 5:15 pm or so I’d be outside (pruning roses in backyard) in what felt like a mini-tornado!
As I was outside puttering in the garden I noticed that it was getting darker and darker. I swear that if I didn’t know what time it was I might have thought the sun was about to set. So I was just about to start gathering the items I’d been using in the garden when strong winds came out of nowhere … no warning at all.
Suddenly I was in the worst wind storm I’ve ever experienced. Small branches were flying off my neighbors maple tree and I was worried that the broken down roof that they had over their garage overhang was about to blow into my yard. As it turned out a few pieces of the wood holding the roof down did land in my yard.
Our other neighbor rushed outside just as part of his back fence came loose and went flying towards him and his house. Then I noticed that the neighbor behind us was about to loose a large piece of their evestroughing from the front of their house!
That was enough for me and my new MBT shoes! I rushed into our enclosed back porch with my gardening tools. I stayed there for a bit to keep an eye on my neighbor who was covering up his BBQ and kids bikes just in case our other neighbors garage overhang roof did fly off and headed towards him. At least a little warning might have helped!
Chris was out at Home Depot while this was going on. When he came home just after 5:30 I learned that a TREE fell down right in front of the car as he was driving! It brought down power lines too! He carefully drove to the other side of the road and made it past the fallen tree and dangerous downed power lines.
Needless to say once he came home he was a little shaken up. I was glad that he hadn’t been hurt and told him about my backyard adventures as well.
Oddly enough, watching the news and the Weather Network at 6 pm they didn’t mention any damage from the powerful winds although they said there were gusts up to 85 kilometers an hour … I’m sure it was stronger in our area during the 10 to 15 minute windstorm. The news didn’t even mention downed trees … maybe this severe windstorm was just in our immediate area?
Pretty scary though .. I mean I literally saw two of my neighbors houses being damaged and another neighbors fence fly off! Not to mention Chris’ experience with a tree falling down right in front of him as he was driving … oh and after that the car lifted up off the ground while he was driving across the bridge at Millwood.
It’s scary how fast weather can change isn’t it? One minute it’s our warmest Spring day so far – 26 C (79 F) but felt like 30 C (86 F) with humidity and the next it’s the worst windstorm that I’ve experienced! Shortly after the winds the rain started falling. We had a little thunder, but nothing compared to that wind storm that I won’t soon forget!
I hope the weather in your area is better than ours was about two hours ago!
