Hail storms in Grimsby and Winona, a possible tornado in Welland, a tornado warning for Hamilton, funnel clouds off Port Dover, Long Point and Fort Erie and torrential downpours and flooding in Stoney Creek and Hagersville.

Just another July day in the Golden Horseshoe.

And Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson says the odd weather plaguing the Hamilton area will probably run into the middle of next week.

It's caused by cold and warm fronts colliding, combined with wind and heat rising up from the ground.

"People have anecdotes saying we have had active weather and they are quite right," Coulson said yesterday.

Grimsby and Winona were the hardest hit by the storms that rumbled through in a 20-hour period, battered by severe hailstorms late Tuesday. Other storms hit the area yesterday afternoon, causing severe flooding in Hagersville and Stoney Creek.

Coulson said Environment Canada is checking on reports of funnel clouds touching down Tuesday at about 5:30 p.m. near Niagara College in Welland. They have video footage of the funnel clouds, plus airborne tree branches and metal sheets from a worksite, indicating "a possible tornado."

Hail pelted Puddicombe Estate Farms on Highway 8 in Winona for only 10 minutes or so, but that was enough to cause $250,000 in damage.

"It's sad," said Lindsay Puddicombe, a winemaker at the popular tourist attraction. "The leaves and grapes are all over the ground, and everything is shredded. It's a huge hit to our business."

All of the apples and grapes at the main Puddicombe Estate farm were destroyed, and 80 per cent of the peaches and pears on the farms were lost. Insurance will cover some of the value of the grapes, but Puddicombe's does not have insurance for its other crops.

The damage is especially devastating now that the CanGro canning plant in St. Davids is closed. The farm would normally send slightly damaged "seconds" to the factory, but now Puddicombe's has nowhere to sell the fruit.

"We make some of our own preserves and peach wine, but there is only so much peach wine you can make," Puddicombe said.

A front-end loader was needed in Grimsby to clear out drifts of gumball-sized hail that piled up on a couple of roads, looking like snow. Bob LeRox, director of public works, said the town had never before needed to pull out a front-end loader in the summer.

"This is the kind of storm that people who've lived here all their lives are saying they've never seen anything like it," LeRox said.

Twelve hours after the hail storm, Sandra Koch's backyard was still buried under piles of shredded leaves and three inches of nickel-sized hail steaming in the warm air.

Her garage and basement had minor flooding, but Koch said some of her neighbours didn't fare as well.

"They had hail pile up in the stairwell and when it started to melt, it flooded their basement," she said.

David Pypher said he only got to eat one cucumber from his garden before the storm destroyed them.

"We had thousands of beans out there that we were going to can this weekend, and now they are all gone," he said. "I've never seen anything like this."

The Canadian Tire on Livingston Avenue did a brisk business selling chainsaws and rakes.

"I think we should have a Christmas in July sale!" said Lisa Smith, who works at the store.

It took only a couple hours for flash flooding to soak Hagersville in 50 centimetres of water. Daryl Nixon said the rain started coming down in sheets at 12:30 p.m., and an hour later the water was up to his knees on his street.

"It was unbelievable," he said.

lmueller@thespec.com

905-526-3484

dnolan@thespec.com

905-526-3351

Region cleans up after 20 hours of weather mayhem

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