| Posted By MARIA CANTON, SUN MEDIA ROCKFORD, Ont. - Environment Canada officials are investigating whether a tornado touched down near Rockford after severe thunderstorms ripped through the area Sunday. The storm toppled trees, flattened sign poles, ripped off roofs and tossed debris through the air. Geoff Coulson said yesterday a tornado likely briefly touched down in the Rockford area late in the afternoon, something that is consistent with the bulk of damage reports they are receiving. "Generally with the way this storm was moving most trees should be knocked towards the east or southeast, which is the direction the storm was going," Coulson, a warning preparedness meteorologist from Environment Canada, said yesterday. "Right now we're working on identifying all of the weather that was in the area and it is possible there may have been a tornado briefly associated with some of this damage." The most likely explanation, however, is that powerful "downbursts" associated with the storm are responsible for the damage and power outages that stretch throughout Bruce and Grey counties. A downburst is a rush of rain-cooled air that "bursts" out of the storm, hits the ground and then pushes ahead of it, similar to a plow knocking over anything in its path. According to Coulson, it's difficult for the radar to pick up tornadoes, which is why they are still investigating the storm, because the radar beam does not measures the storm at ground level, but rather several metres in the air. "That measurement doesn't always record tornado development near the surface. What the radar can tell us, is if the parent thunderstorm is rotating, but not every rotating thunderstorm produces a tornado," he added. While power outages and damage to roofs and trees was widespread throughout the twin counties, several locations in the Rockford area were reporting tornado-like damage, consistent with Coulson's description. At Grey Roots Museum, just west of Rockford, strong winds flattened sign posts, ripped part of the roof off the main building, toppled trees and completely blew down a cedar rail fence surrounding its historic village |