Toronto storm damage

Wind and rain storm wreaks havoc in Toronto

For the third time in as many months, Toronto is dealing with the aftermath of a vicious wind storm that saw gusts of up to 100 km/hr take down hydro poles, shopping centre roofs and so many full grown trees — all within just a few minutes.

The melee began with a heavy wave of heat and humidity on Wednesday afternoon, followed by thunderstorms as a cold front moved into the region.

Intense but short-lived bursts of rain caught many in Toronto off-guard between 4 and 5 p.m., soaking anyone who happened to be outdoors instantly.

Toronto Hydro says that it started to see scattered outages as a result of the storm around 4:30 p.m.

By 7 p.m., roughly 16,500 customers had been left without power across the city.

Pea to dime-sized hail rained ravaged some parts of Ontario, according to The Weather Network, but what really kicked Toronto's butt was wind damage.

The sheer volume of tweets and Instagram posts in which trees are seen crushing cars, blocking roads and falling onto buildings during yesterday's storm is astounding.

As brutal as the similarly gusty storms that hit Toronto in early April and May were, many are saying that the damage caused by this relatively quick shot of violent weather is the worst they've seen in 2018 to date.

The speed of the transition from dark, wet, lock-down-your-patio-furniture mode to sunny and calm was almost comical.

Or would have been, had the lives of so many beautiful old trees (and expensive young cars) been lost.

Around 2,100 homes are still without power in Toronto as of Thursday morning, according to Toronto Hydro. The company says it cannot estimate how long it will take to get everything up and running again in light of the "significant damage." 

"All day crews are being diverted to help restore you as quickly as possible," wrote the power company on Twitter Thursday morning.

Once again, street lights and stop signs are all kinds of messed up.

As are public trails.

TTC routes are also still being diverted all over the city thanks to storm damage, as many roads remain blocked off by fallen trees.

The Eaton Centre might be looking worse for wear too, after heavy rains prompted some pretty spectacular flooding. 

Fortunately, police have yet to report that anyone was seriously injured as a result of yesterday's storm. Silver linings, ya know?

Lead photo by

Loretta Ryan


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