Month: July 2021

TORONTO — Residents in southern Ontario shared images of destruction Thursday afternoon after a monster weather system generated tornado warnings for several areas.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued tornado warnings for several communities around 2:30 p.m. EDT as a larger weather system moved into Simcoe County and Northern Dufferin County.

Warnings were issued for Barrie, Collingwood, Hillsdale, Orillia, Lagoon City, and Washago as the storm moved through the region. 

Residents shared images of widespread damage after a tornado confirmed by Environment Canada touched down in the Barrie area.

Images show overturned vehicles, sections of roofing torn from the house, and the second floor of a home completely detached from the structure. Barrie police said officers responded to several calls of people injured as a result of the storm.

What you can do to help: Environment Canada has so far ruled it an EF2 tornado, but more investigation is being done on the damage in the Prince William Way/Mapleview Drive East area.

Donations of supplies are no longer needed at this time, said Barrie police on social media. Residents are thanked for their generosity in providing toiletries and basic necessities for the families impacted by the tornado.

Barrie Families Unite has created a specific email for financial donations. Money e-transfers for tornado relief can be sent to bfutornado@gmail.com.

And a public volunteering page has also been set up on Facebook for people who would like to volunteer to help out.

400 Chrysler in Innisfil and Barrie Chrysler will open up as a Convenient and safe, drop-off location for any and all donations. If you can’t make it in, you can message Jessica Puddifant directly at 705-984-5963 and she will make arrangements to get them picked up.

The Sun Emporium is donating all proceeds of single tans/services to the victims of this horrific disaster.

Both locations are also drop-offs for any supplies, clothing food, etc to assist.

Anyone wishing to donate a specific item can also call Service Barrie at 705-726-4242.

And financial donations can also be made to the Canadian Red Cross.

A “wobble” in the moon’s orbit will combine with rising sea levels due to the Earth’s warming to bring “a decade of dramatic increases” in high-tide coastal floods across the U.S. in the 2030s, NASA warns in a new study.

Why it matters: Low-lying areas near sea level already increasingly at risk from flooding will see their situation “only get worse,” per a statement from NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

“The combination of the Moon’s gravitational pull, rising sea levels, and climate change will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and across the world.”

— Nelson

The big picture: Scientists have known about wobbles in the orbit of the moon, which takes 18.6 years to complete, since 1728.

• While such events are not dangerous on their own, what’s new is how one of the wobble’s effects on the moon’s gravitational pull — the main cause of Earth’s tides — will combine with rising sea levels resulting from the planet’s warming, according to NASA.

What they did: For the study, researchers found the tipping points in flood numbers by analyzing 89 tide gauge locations in every coastal U.S. state and territory but Alaska.

• “They created a new statistical framework that mapped NOAA’s widely used sea level rise scenarios and flooding thresholds, the number of times those thresholds have been exceeded annually, astronomical cycles, and statistical representations of other processes, such as El Niño events, that are known to affect tides,” per a NASA statement.
• The researchers projected results through 2080.

State of play: We’re now in the tide-amplifying part of this cycle. Along most U.S. coastlines, sea levels haven’t risen too much, but high tides regularly top flooding thresholds.

The bottom line: By the next tide-amplifying cycle in the mid-2030s, the wobble in the moon’s orbit will combine with rising sea levels.

• “The higher seas, amplified by the lunar cycle, will cause a leap in flood numbers on almost all U.S. mainland coastlines, Hawaii, and Guam,” NASA warns.
• Far northern coastlines, like Alaska’s, will be spared for another decade or longer because these land areas are rising due to long-term geological processes.

Article by AXIOS