BREAKING: Multiple storm warnings issued for Ottawa area on Friday –

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Environment Canada lifted a tornado warning for the Ottawa area issued only 17 minutes earlier on Friday evening, followed by another series of thunderstorm advisories.

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The tornado warning, issued at 7 p.m., said meteorologists were tracking a severe thunderstorm “that is possibly producing a tornado. Damaging winds, large hail and locally intense rainfall are also possible.”

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The update released at 7:17, covering both Ottawa and Gatineau, warned about possible severe thunderstorms in the area, as did one for that part of eastern Ontario around Maxville and Alexandria.

The ensuing storm, with lightning, suspended the Canadian Football League game between the Ottawa Redblacks and visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Lansdowne Park at 7:42 p.m. Players, coaches and officials were cleared from the field and fans were instructed to seek shelter.

The game resumed after a delay of slightly less than one hour, at 8:40.

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Earlier in the day, hail the size of golf balls came down as a storm moved through Ottawa.

Just before that storm, Environment Canada had issued a rare emergency alert for the Ottawa area after radar indicated hail accompanying the storm could be as large as baseball sized, up to seven centimetres in diameter, said Monica Vaswani, a warning preparedness meteorologist with the agency.

Such a move is highly unusual, she said, but was done because the size of the hail represented a significant potential danger.

Environment Canada had initially warned of nickel-sized hail accompanied by winds of up to 90 km/h, but upgraded that warning based on radar.

“The largest report I have seen is about ping pong to golf ball-sized hail, around four to 4.5 centimetres in diameter,” Vaswani said.

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A spokesperson for the Ottawa Police Service said it had already received half a dozen calls about downed wires and trees as of about 4 p.m., many from central Ottawa neighbourhoods, including the area around Wellington West and Westboro.

One resident posted a picture on social media of a golf ball next to a similarly sized chunk of hail. Others reported hail stones bigger than golf balls.

Hydro Ottawa reported multiple power outages across its service territory in the Gloucester, Nepean, Ottawa, Goulbourn and Kanata areas.

“We are working to restore power as soon as possible,” said Hydro Ottawa, which has been involved in a weeks-long labour dispute with the union for 400 of its trades and technical employees and inside workers such as customer-service representatives.

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