3 tornadoes recorded in Quebec amid evening thunderstorms
Quebec saw 3 tornadoes in one day yesterday, according to preliminary findings
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) first confirmed a tornado touched down in Brossard on Montreal's South Shore Wednesday night, overturning an 18-wheeler truck, uprooting several trees and causing damage to infrastructure.
The twister formed around 8:12 p.m., the federal agency wrote in a statement Thursday morning.
Then, Thursday afternoon, ECCC posted on X that it had provisionally concluded two other twisters had occurred in the province Wednesday.
One of the two took place in Saint-Hippolyte north of Montreal at around 4 p.m. It also uprooted several trees and caused damage to infrastructure.
The other occurred soon after in the early evening, ECCC said, though did not provide a specific time, in Cap-Santé, a town in Quebec's North Shore region on the St. Lawrence River.
The tornado in Brossard hit near Matte Boulevard, said Longueuil police spokesperson Mélanie Mercille, who added the driver of the semi-trailer suffered minor injuries.
Researchers with Western University's Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) are expected in Brossard Thursday to inspect the damage.
ECCC says an investigation into tornado-like activity Wednesday in the Laurentians, Boucherville and on a farm in Portneuf near Quebec City will also take place.
Meteorologist Katarina Radovanovic said there are several factors to consider when evaluating a tornado, saying it is identified by either the type of damage it does or the intensity of the winds.
"So we're going to look at the damages of the structures or what was broken," she said.
Heavy rain swept across southern Quebec Wednesday evening, particularly in Montreal, the Laurentians, Lanaudière and the Montérégie.
Written by Sabrina Jonas, with files from Lauren McCallum