This rare phenomenon is nicknamed “derecho”. Giant thunderstorms that swept across eastern Canada on Saturday May 21 killed at least eight people, according to an official report revised upwards on Sunday. The Ontario Provincial Police announced to the CTVNews channel the death of seven people, killed on Saturday by falling trees and branches, against three counted the day before by the emergency services. The eighth death was recorded on Saturday on the Ottawa River, when a canoeist drowned off Gatineau, a Quebec suburb of Ottawa.
“This storm was almost 1,000 km long, from Michigan to Maine”American states located respectively in the center and northeast of the country, stretching through the Canadian provinces “of Ontario and Quebec”summarized on a local radio David Philipps, meteorologist of the Federal Ministry of the Environment.
“An infrequent phenomenon”
“It’s called a derecho: a long line of thunderstorms and micro-bursts”explained this renowned scientist, noting that ‘derecho’ “is not a word we use frequently, it is an infrequent phenomenon”.
The federal capital Ottawa was particularly hit, and thousands of homes were still in the dark on Sunday evening, while the streets were still cluttered with branches and various objects carried by the winds which in places took the form of a tornado.