London More than 200 years of storm reports are now available in this digitized tornado archive Michael Newark’s hand-drawn analysis of the tracks of the Stratford and Woodstock F4 tornadoes which are among the strongest ever documented in Ontario, and Canada (Source: University of Western Ontario) Share A new digitized archive at University of Western Ontario (UWO) documents severe weather events of years past with news clippings, photos, reports and more, dating back to 1792. As the result of years of efforts, documents on this and other storms in the region can now be found in the Michael Newark Digitized Tornado Archive . Take for example the 1979 Woodstock Tornado, an F4 tornado that travelled more than 50 kilometers from it’s origin, causing an estimated $50 million in damages (or more than $200 million when adjusted for inflation).
The online archive offers more than a hundred documents and reports on the event, from 1979 to today. Woodstock Damage Photo, August 7, 1979 (Source: Michael Newark Digitized Tornado Archive) The archive’s namesake created Canada’s first national tornado database, compiled of decades of records. “When I started this work, I never imagined it would become such an extensive archive,” Newark said.
“We did the best we could with the resources we had, and seeing it digitized today is truly gratifying.” Initially compiled as a physical archive in his time working as a meteorologist at Environment Canada, Newark started his work com.