'It looked like it was headed straight for me': co-founder of Ontario Storm Watch among first on scene of Barrie tornado

By chance, Adam Clarke, co-founder of Ontario Storm Watch, was first on scene after a tornado tore through a south-end Barrie subdivision (July 15).

There was debris on the ground, there was stuff on the road. I could see fences knocked down," Clarke said.

A tree had fallen on Mapleview Drive East, just east of Prince William Way. Clarke had someone chainsaw it and move it out of the way to ensure emergency crews could enter. He saw a woman bleeding from lacerations on her arm and led her to an ambulance.

The first Barrie police officer arrived less than five minutes after the tornado went through, Clarke said. Within 15 to 20 minutes emergency crews were going door-to-door and getting people into ambulances, he said.

The Barrie emergency management on this storm did a banging job. Better than I've ever seen," Clarke said. It was just a perfect job. They couldn't have done any better"

He added: These people that had minor injuries could have had more severe injuries if they weren't so fast."

Clarke, co-founder of Ontario Storm Watch, happened to be on a service call on Succession Crescent about 20 minutes before the tornado hit that very subdivision.

While Clarke was in the customer's home fixing a computer, his colleague Adam Skinner, co-founder and CEO/CFO of Ontario Storm Watch, issued a rotation alert for the area. The warning went to Clarke's cellphone through the pair's Instant Weather app.

I opened up my radar app, seen the rotation that he was seeing, left the service call as soon as possible to try and get some eyes on the tornado to hopefully alert Environment Canada to get a warning," Skinner said.

He advised the family to get in the basement and drove west down Mapleview Drive East toward Yonge Street East. He was driving right into the tornado.

It looked like it was headed straight for me, which it was," Clarke said.

Clarke waited in the KFC parking lot as the storm headed east down Mapleview Drive.

The tornado touched down and produced a visible tunnel around Yonge Street and Mapleview Drive East. He described the tornado as thin and ropy."

I figure that tornado must have been moving 60 to 70 kilometres an hour," Clarke said.

Clarke was in the area at the time and only knew about the tornado because of the alert through Instant Weather app.

Clarke and Skinner run the Ontario Storm Watch Facebook page and Instant Weather app.

Skinner used a velocity radar - a paid subscription from Environment Canada - to spot the rotation.

It takes a keen eye to pick up on what's severe rotation versus just normal convergence of two storms," Clarke said.

Skinner livestreamed the tornado event.

He must have given at least 20, 30 minutes of heads up," Clarke said.

Though passionate about chasing storms, Clarke follows the chaser's rule.

As soon as you see damage, as soon as you see something that's broken, or someone that might need some help, your chase in done," he said. Any storm chaser that's professional will always stop and help and that's what happened today."

Clarke and Skinner met in 2012 chasing a storm just outside Shelburne, Ontario. There was no news coverage and Skinner almost got hit by a tornado, Clarke said.

We ended up deciding to start up a weather page for storm chasers and weather enthusiasts alike to basically get the word out and see if we could be a little bit more aggressive toward announcing potential severe storm," he said.

He added: We don't want people to die in front of these storms, especially if we know they are going to happen."

Environment Canada will issue an alert when a tornado is on the ground, Clarke said.

We wanted to be a little bit more aggressive toward trying to get a step up on alerting people before it happens," he said.

Through the app and Facebook page, Skinner and Clarke are able to advise people when there is no potential for a tornado, Clarke said.

It's advising people who are deathly afraid of storms to maybe not be as scared of certain storms that are heading their way," he said.

Clarke thanked the 30 volunteers who help run Ontario Storm Watch.