Environment Canada confirms tornado hit Ontario's cottage country, 3,000 still without power

Environment Canada has confirmed that a tornado touched down in Ontario's Muskokaregion during a bout of intense thunderstorms that pummeled the area Friday evening,leavingthousands of customers still without power.

The weather agencysent an expert to Huntsville on Saturday after eyewitness reports of a twister and images of damage to trees and buildings. It's too early to know how strong the tornado was, but it damagedseveral structures.

The storms knocked out power to roughly 13,000 Hydro One customers in the area Friday night, and as of Saturday evening, about 3,000 remained without power in the area about 200 kilometres north of Toronto.

• Downed trees, blocked roads, damaged cottages reported as storm hits Muskoka

Storms also hit the city ofBrockville, where there were 160customers without power.

Dana Gardner, spokesperson for Hydro One, said its crews are expected to restore power to a majority of customers in cottage country by 4 p.m. on Sunday but customers should check the Hydro One map online for the most accurate restoration times.

"Our crews are making progress," Gardner said Saturday. "Our crews are working to restore power as quickly and as safely as possible."

The storms downed trees, ripped shinglesoff roofs and damaged docks.High winds snapped trees in half and some landed on cottages. Some roads were blocked on Friday night.

Arnold Ashton, severe weather meteorologist with Environment Canada in Toronto, said Huntsville was one of the hardest hit areas.

"It was quite an intense system that moved across southern Ontario, and there were a number of strong thunderstorms. There weresome isolated severe thunderstorms. One in particular moved across the Huntsville area yesterday afternoon and caused sporadic damage through several areas," he said.

The federal agency has watcheda video of what looks like awater spout moving acrossFairy Lake east ofHuntsville.

"That's part of the puzzle," he said. "It has yet to be determined whether that was involved in the damage that occurred in the area."

A water spout is a column of rotating wind that is tornadic in nature, he said. "It's basically a core of rapidly rotating air as it is moving across a body of water," he said.

Between 70 and 80 millimetres of rain fell in the Huntsville and Lake of Bays area during the thunderstorms, the federal agency said. There was also possibly hail, he said.

A tornado warning for the area was issued on Friday, then lifted.