David M. L. Sills Home Page

David M. L. Sills

S. Simmie / Toronto Star

Research Interests: summer severe weather (including tornadoes),

low-level mesoscale boundaries (including Great Lakes lake breeze fronts),
and severe weather nowcasting

List of Publications

Here is what I have been up to lately...

New! Find my new 'official' work web site here.

In 2006, Neil Taylor and I assembled and tested the new EC Automated Mobile Meteorological Observation System (AMMOS) for the first time in Edmonton - here is a photo

26 July 2005 storm chase in Essex County, Ontario

Toronto Star article on our 2005 storm chase in the US Tornado Alley

Pictures of new dual-polarization radar at King City

In Memoriam article for Brian Murphy in CMOS Bulletin – see List of Publications

Chase2004 “web book” documenting my first chasing trip to the US

Storm Damage Survey Summaries for the 13 July 04 Exeter area tornadoes and the 17 July 04 Sheppardton tornado – see List of Publications

“Tornadoes in Ontario Project” article from Severe Local Storms Conference – see List of Publications

“Sydney 2000 project” journal articles in Weather and Forecasting – see List of Publications

2002 Ontario Severe Weather Summary

A Short Guide to Conducting Damage Surveys

ELBOW 2001 - A Lake Breeze Odyssey

Storm Damage Surveys including the 17 July 2000 Guelph tornado survey

Extreme Vs. Severe Weather (Opinion)

AMS 20th Severe Local Storms Conference Paper - Landspouts at Lake Breeze Fronts in Southern Ontario

A Lake and Land Breeze Primer (basically Chapter One of my PhD thesis)

Rare Late-Season Lake Breezes in Southern Ontario

The 1997 Effects of Lake Breezes on Weather (ELBOW) Experiment (1998)

This is a pilot project that Patrick King (AES) and I conceived to try to answer some nagging questions about lake-induced cloud lines in southwestern Ontario that appear to be frequently associated with the occurrence of summer severe weather. In particular, we wanted to find out if these lines were in fact lake breeze fronts. I would venture to say that we collected enough data to make some headway in this area. Hopefully, the promising results from this pilot project will lead to an expanded study sometime in 1999 or the big 2K. (An article with similar content has been submitted to the CMOS Bulletin.)

ELBOW 97: Storm Photos

ELBOW 97: July 14, 1997 sensitivity study using MC2

Preliminary MC2 results from July 2, 1997

Some nasty summer severe weather occurred on July 2, 1997, in southwestern Ontario and there was some speculation that lake breezes may have been involved. I decided to run MC2 for this day to assess the role of lake breezes. Indeed, the model predicts the development of 'highly-perturbed' lake breeze circulations. Patrick King and I are thinking that this type of lake breeze set-up (moderate S or SW surface winds with lake breezes and an approaching cold front) may turn out to be rather important to summer storm forecasting in SW Ontario. Take a look for yourself!

Links to storm chaser pages

My personal web pages

Drop me a line sometime if you are so inclined…

David M. L. Sills, PhD

King City Weather Radar Facility

14780 Jane Street

King City, Ontario

L7B 1A3

Phone: (905) 833-3905 Ext. 235
Fax: (905) 833-0398 ATTN: Dave Sills

E-Mail: David.Sills [at] ec.gc.ca or dsills [at] sympatico.ca

The views expressed here are mine and reflect the official position of neither York University nor Environment Canada.

Last update: August 2008