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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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

New Paper Alert! "Analysis of Forest-Based Tornadoes Using Treefall Patterns" in Monthly Weather Review, authored by our team at @cssl.ca and led by PhD candidate Daniel Butt. Based on this and other techniques, we may be able to re-rate some Canadian tornadoes. journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

UPDATE: Two NTP teams will investigate wind damage, one in SE AB and one in central SK. The NHP will also have a team investigating hail damage in the Cassils / Brooks, AB area. Please send significant damage reports to @ntp-reports.bsky.social and @nhp-reports.bsky.social. #ABstorm #SKstorm

There are numerous reports of significant wind damage in southeastern Alberta from intense storms earlier today. Hail damage has also been reported. An NTP survey team will leave tomorrow for the area to thoroughly assess the damage. Please send damage reports to @ntp-reports.bsky.social. #ABstorm

The Canadian Severe Storms Lab is excited to be a sponsor of the 41st AMS International Conference on Radar Meteorology in Toronto next week. Welcome to all those travelling from afar! And it looks to be a stellar program - have a look here: www.ametsoc.org/ams/meetings... #AMS41Radar

“Scientists-turned-storm chasers” are tracking down Alberta hail storms to better understand how to protect against them. Researchers from the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory ( @cssl.ca ) at #WesternU spoke with the @theglobeandmail.com about the Northern Hail Project.

Follow the link below to a new article on the detection and prediction of 'extreme' thunderstorms by Drs. Sills and Kopp of the Canadian Severe Storm Laboratory. Published in The Conversation (Canada). Let us know what you think! theconversation.com/its-challeng...

Spark had the best rainy day with the Canadian Severe Storm Lab. Guests got to learn how the Northern Hail Project team tracks down the perfect #storm and the tools used to get hail data! They also showed off their storm-chasing vehicles and surveillance drones. ⛈️ Thanks for coming @cssl.ca!

Calgary has a long history of intense hailstorms, and this summer is no different. @weathernetwork.bsky.social spoke with #WesternU hail researcher Matthew Woodward, who is on the ground documenting damage from a recent storm for @cssl.ca

What Canada could learn from the tragic consequences of the Texas flash flood (written by Dr. Gordon McBean) theconversation.com/what-canada-...

Come here…to Toronto! Registration is now open for the @ametsoc.org @ametsoc-radar.bsky.social 41st International Conference on Radar Meteorology! www.ametsoc.org/ams/meetings...

After extensive analysis, the NTP is able to provide documentation for the 10 tornadoes that occurred as part of an outbreak in southern SK on June 19th. The outbreak included 2 EF2 and three EF1 tornadoes. Full details at www.uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202... #SKstorm

The CSSL is featured in the current episode of CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks! Head here for the link to the audio: www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks... Thanks to our colleagues Harold Brooks, John Allen, Paul Kovacs and Tanya Brown-Giammanco for contributing.

Big crowd for this month’s CSSL Seminar now that all of the interns have started (there are even more online). Speaking today is Dr. Connell Miller, Director of CSSL’s Northern Mesonet Project (@westernunmp.bsky.social), on experimental tornado wind estimation methods. @westernuresearch.bsky.social

The NTP has confirmed that a tornado occurred in southern Alberta near Rolling Hills yesterday. Analysis of photos/video, radar and storm environment indicates that this was a 'landspout'-type tornado. It is also the first recorded tornado of the year in Canada. Further details soon. #ABstorm

The NTP has completed a third Tornado Warning Performance Assessment for Canada, this time covering 2023-2024. It includes a 'report card' on progress. And we're happy to report that there has been progress - the overall score has improved enough to earn a 'C'. Details here: uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202...

A very big update is now live on the Canadian Mesonet Portal! This includes new meteorological variables, saving / exporting settings and more! For more details, you can check out the link below. But here are the main highlights for you to see in a 🧵: www.uwo.ca/nmp/news/202...

NTP's Annual Report for 2024 is now available! The 2024 Canadian tornado season started Mar 16 and ended Nov 10 - the longest on record since at least 1980. And the 129 tornadoes for the year comes second only to 2022 when there was 131. Press release and link: news.westernu.ca/2025/02/torn...

There is one remaining online info session for those interested in CSSL intern opportunities - Jan 23 at 7 pm ET. Note the application deadline is Jan 27. You can learn more about the CSSL internship program and how to register for the info session here: westernuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The sad news reached us that Chuck Doswell has passed away. ESSL will be forever grateful for his intensive engagement. With his unique talent to reduce severe storm science to its core and his engaging style of teaching and friendliness he has made an enormous impact on European storm research.

The NTP systematic satellite imagery review for 2024 also turned up 11 new tornadoes from 2013 to 2023! The following blog post provides details for these, as well as for a damage track reported on social media and confirmed by NTP as a tornado from 1988: uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202...

At the end of each year, NTP staff undertake a systematic review of satellite imagery to find any forest damage that may have been missed. In 2024, it turned up 14 new tornadoes. Add in a couple of stragglers, and the 2024 count goes up to 129. A busy year! Details here: uwo.ca/ntp/blog/202...

There will be two online info sessions for those interested in CSSL intern opportunities - Jan 8 at 12:30 PM ET and Jan 23 at 7 pm ET. You can learn more about the CSSL internship program and how to register for an info session here: uwo.ca/cssl/interns...

Dive into real-world research and fieldwork with the CSSL Summer Internship Program! Learn more and apply here: uwo.ca/cssl/internships/index.html Don't miss your chance to gain hands-on experience with leading hail and tornado experts in the field. Applications close on January 27th.

Hello Bluesky! We’re thrilled to be here! If you missed our launch in late October and haven’t visited the Canadian Mesonet Portal yet, you can find it here! meso.cssl.ca

If you were wondering where to show your newest research results on severe storms next year: ESSL & KNMI are proud to announce the 12th ECSS, which will take place in Utrecht, Netherlands between 17 and 21 November 2025. Looking forward to seeing you there!