Hi Everyone..

It's been pretty brutal here the last few weeks. We (meaning Toronto and surrounding cities) have been hit with one of the worst heatwaves I can remember. Temperatures have been feeling like 40 degrees Celsius for almost a month and the humidity it's been a nightmare. We have had some Tornado activity outside of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and last night we were hit with a storm so severe that many places are in almost "disaster" mode today. My sisters area was hit pretty hard - roofs were torn off the homes as funnel clouds touch down all over the city of Woodbridge. I spoke to my sister last night during the storm using our cell phones and she was huddled with her children and husband in their cantina. Thankfully they are alright and damage to their home is minimal. Toronto itself also suffered a horrific storm. We caught the tail end of the tornado as Lou and I came back from the dentist. The skies opened up and suddenly everything went black. The winds picked up fiercely and the rain pelted down like nothing I have ever seen before. Lou actually commented that it was the worst weather he had ever seen ( and Lou does not fear any kind of weather). We couldn't see six inches in front of us as we attempted to drive the two blocks to our house. When we finally parked the care we found the kids home and slightly panicked as they didn't know where we were - we couldn't even get out of our cars so we sat there and watched as trees around us were hit by lighting causing them to split in half. Cars were damaged.

All in all the storm lasted about an hour. No damage was done to our home and we are all safe and sound. My son told me a few people called to see how we were doing today and I just wanted to thank you for the concern. We are fine. I would have written last night but we chose to shut off the computers last night and just call it an early evening.

The bad news is that we are expecting more this evening..

The news story appearing in today's paper..
www.yorkregion.com/article/95771

WOW, take care Nuccia and your family. I always imagined that it was the Cold and Snow you had to deal with good job I'm not on a quiz show I would get that wrong. How can I ever complain about the weather here in England after that, mind you it's a national obsession here (too wet or windy sometimes some Sun) never two days the same.
So just be careful.
Mike.

Thanks Mike. We will be careful. And just so you no - Toronto is NOT prone to this type of weather. This is strange for us.

That must have been like a living nightmare for you all. I know how I sometimes feel when its a high wind and exceptionally heavy rain here but nothing like you have just experienced.
The weather world wide has just gone crazy Sometimes we get weather expected in the 4 seasons all in one day.
Nuccia just you take care I'll be praying that it doesnt happen again for you .
Love and hugs
Emmy

Nuccia, I'm so glad to hear that everything is OK. I knew that your area was probably OK from the reports, but you had told me that your sister lives in Woodbridge and I was concerned for her. I talked to your son the next day and he told me that "aunty" was OK.

My future son-in-law watched the tornado swirl in Vaughn from the commuter parking lot on Hwy 400 and Major McKenzie, and then it passed over them but did not touch down, thank God. The van was shaking and debris was being tossed around. He said the weirdest thing was watching birds trying to fly but having no control. He is fascinated by this kind of thing and oftern jokes about going stormchasing. Well, he didn't have to go very far. The storm found him.

Here we had some rain and wind. But after it was over, there was the most beautiful double rainbow I have ever seen.

Mary

Hi Mary!

Louis told me you had called asking how everything was. Thank you! I am so sorry I missed your call. My sister is fine as are my cousins and my nieces. They lost a few chairs in the back yard but other wise nothing major. They were over 600 homes destroyed not to far away though which is really sad. I believe only one person was killed in the one that hit Durham and perhaps a child of 11 years (unconfirmed though) but its still one death too many.

I saw the rainbows -actually I took a few pictures of them. They were pretty. I have only seen one or two rainbows since I have been in Canada but when I lived in the US it was a weekly event -especially after all the sun showers we used to have. It was constantly humid in Yonkers. Speaking of humid, there does look like we're going to get much of a break from it. They temperatures are still supposed to be high next week. What's it been like over there??

The high temp in Chicago yesterday was 61! Crazy! It should be in the upper 80's!

Well its dipping here too. We were at my husbands family annual picnic yesterday and the weather couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to do. One minute it was spitting rain, the next it was cool and cloudy and they sunny and warm. This morning it's only 15 degrees C. (60 degree F). Tomorrow and Wednesday is supposed to be hot and humid again. I think I will have to start wearing a sweater to work again.

Its been crazy in NY all summer. Temps not as high as they should be, lots of rain with lots of wind, taking down huge trees, causing lots of damage. For a while, we were getting small storms every night. Then last week we had a heat wave, and now its cool again. The weather just hasnt been normal all summer. It feels like we didnt have a summer. I cant say that I disliked the lack of heat. I dont like it very hot, but I didnt much care for the rain.