The Northern Tornadoes Project has passed a major milestone! The NTP launched in 2017, and over 10 seasons of investigations we have passed the 1,000 tornadoes confirmed mark (see map below). Many thanks to all of the staff, grad students, interns, partners, collaborators and public contributors!

**Important Announcement** This Thursday, July 16th, the Northern Hail Project (NHP), along with members of the City of Calgary led Hail Resilience Improvement Network (HRIN), will be running a special series of exhibits and demonstrations on all things #hail at the TELUS Spark Science Centre! 1/3

NHP Field Operations - Mission Today - July 16, 2026 NHP Field Teams have deployed to areas E of Calgary today (June 16) in anticipation of the potential for damaging, wind-driven hail. #abstorm If it is safe to do so, please send us any damage/hail reports you may encounter from today's storms!

Northern Hail Project@westernunhp.bsky.social · 2mo ago

**Survey Announcement** #MBstorm #SKStorm Several CSSL survey teams are currently conducting assessments of wind, hail, and flash flood impacts from the multi-day series of storms that have affected large swaths of Manitoba and Saskatchewan June 6th through June 9th (1/3)

CSSL group outing to see the Blue Jays beat the Orioles in Toronto today. Dome’s open, sun’s hot, let’s go!! #FieldOfDreams

A team-building board game competition and dinner at a local BBQ joint to end the second week of Canadian Severe Storms Lab training. The number of interns continues to grow each year. They’ll be busy very soon!

First NTP damage survey of the year, and first in-field media interview of the year. The NTP's damage survey lead, Aaron Jaffe, always does a great job. Results from the damage survey coming later today. #ONstorm www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxSQ...

Extensive damage after storm hits north of London

YouTube video by CTV News

youtube.com

It's Emergency Preparedness Week, and your help is needed on a related letter-writing campaign. ECCC has decided to shut down its long-standing radar research program. This affects severe weather warnings, and the work of the NTP and its partners. Details here: actionnetwork.org/letters/reve...

Reverse the Loss of ECCC Severe Weather Radar Science

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) recently disbanded its High Impact Weather Research section that included radar research. The radar research group was tasked with ensuring that our new $1...

actionnetwork.org

Julia is the *first* in a line of NHP graduate students joining the ranks of Canada's next generation of severe weather scientists. We wish Julia all the very the best and look forward to her continued and future contributions to hail science! @cssl.ca 2/2

**Important Announcement!** Today, we congratulate NHP graduate student Julia Finlayson on the successful defense of her master's thesis, entitled "Development of a Low-Cost, Novel Piezoresistive Polymer Hail Sensor" under the supervision of Drs. Gregory Kopp and Julian Brimelow. 1/2

I'm excited to share that my latest paper focused on the internship program at @cssl.ca is now available as an early online release in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society! doi.org/10.1175/BAMS...

Big update 🚀 We’ve launched the Pro Version of the Canadian Mesonet Portal, along with major improvements across all versions of the platform! Pro Version features will continue rolling out gradually throughout the month, so keep an eye out! Details: www.uwo.ca/nmp/news/202...

Canadian Mesonet Portal Update (v2026.04.05): Pro Version & More!

This release introduces the Pro Version of the Canadian Mesonet Portal, a major expansion of the platform focused on deeper data access, and advanced analysis tools. Alongside the Pro Version, we’ve d...

uwo.ca

An unusually active and destructive start to the tornado season in the northern U.S. has many Canadians wondering what's in store north of the border. Watch more video: https://ow.ly/XrYc50YzWMC

*Survey Announcement* Due to the rare nature of last week's hail event, researchers from the NHP & NTP will be conducting a damage survey tomorrow (March 21) of the region S and SW of Hopeville. Please let us know if you have any damage reports or other info! #onstorm @westernuntp.bsky.social

Northern Hail Project@westernunhp.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Seeking Hail & Damage Reports #ONstorm: At around 1 am, a hailstorm tracked NE of Mount Forest (see MRMS MESH below), with reports of hail over 40 mm in diameter and some vehicle damage (cracked windshield). Investigation is ongoing. Please forward any information you may have on this event! 1/2

The first CSSL Annual Report - covering the CSSL's inaugural full year in 2025 - is now available! Please visit uwo.ca/cssl/news.html to download a copy.

The Northern Mesonet Project at the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory (@cssl.ca) is looking for a Research Software Engineer to join our team! Please feel free to share with anyone who may be interested! You can find the details of the position (ID# 41923) here: www.uwo.ca/hr/working/s...

Western University

Western University, in vibrant London, Ontario, delivers an academic and student experience second to none.

uwo.ca

The CSSL is supporting another storm-themed artistic experience, this time an exhibit at Western's McIntosh Gallery called 'Atmospheric Shifts'. Details and artist bios: mcintoshgallery.ca/exhibitions/... Below are some photos from my recent visit. I'm happy to have 2 of my own tornado prints up!

Last call! Internship applications close on Monday at 11:59PM ET

Canadian Severe Storms Lab@cssl.ca · 8mo ago

Dive into real-world research and fieldwork with the CSSL Summer Internship Program! Learn more and apply here: uwo.ca/cssl/interns... Don't miss your chance to gain hands-on experience with leading tornado and hail experts in the field. Applications close on January 26th.

Heads up - the first info session for the CSSL Summer Internship Program is tonight! Find the details here: uwo.ca/cssl/interns...

Canadian Severe Storms Lab@cssl.ca · 8mo ago

Dive into real-world research and fieldwork with the CSSL Summer Internship Program! Learn more and apply here: uwo.ca/cssl/interns... Don't miss your chance to gain hands-on experience with leading tornado and hail experts in the field. Applications close on January 26th.

Dive into real-world research and fieldwork with the CSSL Summer Internship Program! Learn more and apply here: uwo.ca/cssl/interns... Don't miss your chance to gain hands-on experience with leading tornado and hail experts in the field. Applications close on January 26th.

"Synthetic Aperture Radar as a Tool for Tornado Classification in Forested Areas" demonstrates how SAR can reveal tornado damage signatures in strong tornadoes, offering a way to provide EF-scale ratings in heavily forested regions where optical imagery struggles (doi.org/10.1080/0703...).

These papers highlight complementary remote sensing approaches that can help improve spatial coverage and consistency of tornado intensity assessments. Grateful for @cssl.ca team who made these studies possible!

"Evaluating the Utility of NDVI as a Damage Indicator for Crops in the Enhanced Fujita Scale" tests how NDVI changes can be used to identify crop damage from tornadoes, describes limitations, and shows how NDVI can supplement ground surveys in agricultural areas (doi.org/10.1175/JAMC...).

I'm happy to share two @cssl.ca open-access remote sensing papers that are both related to alternative methods of classifying tornado damage! 🧵:

The CSSL/NTP assisted the US National Weather Service (NWS) with their upgrading of the official rating of the June 2025 Enderlin, ND tornado from EF3 to EF5. Announced by the NWS today, it’s the first EF5-rated tornado in the US since 2013. Details here: uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202... Image B. Emfinger

Excited to announce that my method for estimating wind speeds based on lofted debris in tornadoes was used as contextual evidence for upgrading the Enderlin, ND tornado to an EF5! doi.org/10.1175/MWR-... #NDwx #Enderlin #EF5 #Tornado

Two new open access journal papers today from CSSL researchers! Stochastic Modeling of Radar-derived Maximum Estimated Size of Hail for Scenario-based Hail Loss Estimation doi.org/10.1016/j.ij... Multi-Level In-Situ Measurements During a Direct Hit by a Significant Tornado doi.org/10.1080/0705...

**Damage Survey Announcement: Following an extreme rainfall event and resulting flash flooding across SE Manitoba on Sept 11 & 12, a CSSL damage survey team will be conducting an assessment of the event's impacts. Please let us know if you have any rainfall and/or damage reports! #mbstorm @cssl.ca

The NTP has confirmed that a downburst (paired with large hail) caused high-end EF1 damage in the Brooks, AB area on August 20. Details at the NTP blog here: uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202... Note that ongoing analysis may result in additional events and/or a rating upgrade. #ABstorm #SKstorm

The NTP has confirmed two EF1 downbursts (one being a microburst), an EF0 tornado and a gustnado from the SK storms of Aug 20 near Saskatoon. The assessments are based on witness reports, an NTP damage survey, and radar/satellite imagery analysis. Details here: uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202... #SKstorm