Environment Canada confirms third tornado of the season in southern Ontario

Environment Canada has confirmed that a tornado touched down in a southern Ontario community Tuesday afternoon, ripping the roofs off four homes.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Environment Canada meteorologist Rob Kuhn said the twister had struck Angus, Ont., at around 5:20 p.m. The national weather agency, which confirmed the tornado based on video evidence, will be sending a team to Angus on Wednesday to assess the severity of the damage.

At least 20 other homes also sustained significant damage as a result of the storm, but OPP say no serious injuries have been reported.

"I think people are very shocked by what has happened, which is totally understandable," Coun. Keith White told The Canadian Press.

His ward in the Township of Essa was one of the hardest-hit areas. "(People) are relieved that nobody's hurt besides scratches and things like that."

After Tuesday’s storm had passed, Keith toured parts of his ward. Snapped tree branches, fence planks and other debris littered the driveways and yards of many homes.

"I see furniture, shingles, wood, trees, damage to vehicles," he said while walking through the south end of Angus. "Right now I'm standing looking at a moving truck, a double-axle moving truck, which was on a driveway and now its side on the lawn and driveway next door."

In other parts of the province, Environment Canada had issued tornado warnings and watches for several communities. Severe thunderstorm warnings and watches were also issued for huge swaths of the province, including Toronto and parts of York Region.

Areas covered by the watches and warnings were expecting heavy rain, strong wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour, and hail.

After the storms, several thousand homes and businesses were without power.

Toronto Hydro said about 12,000 customers did not have electricity as of about 10 p.m. The company said 75 per cent of the outages were expected to be repaired by Wednesday morning, and the remainder by about noon the same day.

The forecast storms were part of a severe weather system that caused two tornadoes in Nebraska Monday. The tornadoes killed at least one person, and left sixteen others in critical condition.