‘Weak microburst’ hits Crysler Park Marina: Environment Canada

SOUTH DUNDAS – Crysler Park Marina, east of Morrisburg, has been cleaning up trees and will be repairing docks after a storm Monday night.

It lasted just a few minutes, shifted boats in their slips and caused what looked to be superficial damage.

But St. Lawrence Parks Commission spokeswoman Susan Le Clair said there is some pretty significant damage, where some docks are unusable while others had underwater anchoring chains snapped.

The damage is still being assessed, said Le Clair, and the marina is closed until further notice.

There were reportedly 20-30 boats in the marina that were damaged in the storm, around 9 p.m., which also uprooted several large trees.

 

Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimbell told Cornwall Newswatch an investigator was sent to the scene yesterday morning (Tuesday).

“The conclusion was (it was) a weak microburst,” Kimbell said.

Unlike a tornado where damage is scattered in many directions, Kimbell said all the damage, consistent with a microburst, was in one direction.

“A tornado is…a rotational circulation of air under a strong updraft in a thunderstorm. The damage is often scattered in many directions, not always but frequently,” he explained, “In the investigation yesterday from the Monday evening storm…the damage was all in the same direction and was consistent with what we would see in a microburst.”

“A microburst has to do with a downdraft from a thunderstorm, not an updraft (like in a tornado)…they are different regimes of a thunderstorm,” Kimbell said.