When I made the image above, I was far from guessing what was transpiring only a few kilometers away, closer to my home, real close. It certainly was an unusually hot and beautiful day, but even as the forecast called for thunderstorms, nothing prepared us for what was about to happen. So here I am snapping pictures away as the storm front is approaching, hoping to catch a few lightning strikes…on my memory card, that is. I narrowly missed getting completely soaked as the rain front sprinted across the valley in front of me.

So far so good, I leisurly drive back home, enjoying the thunderstorm cracking its whip in the sky above. As I get closer to home, the scene suddenly looks oddly chaotic. The world around is strangely abuzz, traffic lights are off, there are police and fire trucks all around the places, a few fallen trees here and there. Odd, but nothing alarming. I finally make it home, only to see that the big fir tree in the center of my backyard, well, is no longer in the center but rather comfortably lying on my garage. Ain’t it lovely. A quick visit to the nearby park (and I mean 300m nearby), made it all fall into place: a tornado (yes a TORNADO! In ONTARIO! What the heck were they thinking!) had just ravaged its way across the neighbourhood, uprooting and breaking dozens of trees in its passage. Thankfully (and amazingly), there were no casualties. As a collateral, I ended up having no power for over 24h, which just shows you how dependent we have become of this electricity thing, it sure felt like a looooong 24h!

The Texans, Floridians and Cubans among you are probably muttering in their corner on how their kids eat these tornados for breakfast. And sure, it wasn’t Hurricane Katrina. That said, it hitting so close to home, and being so devastating can only give you a glimpse of how powerful and awesome Mother Nature can be. Just a “gentle” reminder that no matter how advanced and cocky we come to be, it still owns us and can inflict much pain if it “chose to”. I truly find it fascinating how giving and an unforgiving it can be all at once, how it deserves all our awe and respect.

Update: fellow photographer Neville Uitdenbosch, generously provided a link to his pictures taken very close to the “eye of the storm”. You can check them here and here.