Tornados tore through Windsor, Wheatley Thursday, tornado project confirms

Northern Tornado Project says events were associated with winds of between 135 and 175 km/h

The storms that tore through Windsor-Essex on Thursday resulted in two tornados that reportedly tore the roof off a home, toppled transport trucks, and severely damaged trees in Windsor and Wheatley, experts at Western University have confirmed.

Wheatley also experienced a downburst — winds that descend and diverge beneath a storm and are strong enough to cause damage or interfere with the ascent or descent of aircraft, the Northern Tornado Project reported.

Environment Canada radar confirms tornado swept across Windsor, McGregor

'You couldn’t see anything': Windsor-Essex residents pick up the pieces after radar-confirmed tornado

Windsor resident Cole Fauteux, whose home was damaged in the storm, said he had been watching the weather forecast on TV when he heard loud winds and the power went out.

"That's when we really saw the patio furniture start flying," Fauteux said.

"And we were like, ‘OK, well, it's time to head in the basement.’ And then we came up here and … we saw this mess here."

The winds uprooted and downed a large tree in Fauteux’s yard and tore shingles off his roof, causing rainwater to leak into the home around electrical fixtures.

'It's raining right now, and it's raining in our kitchen too'

"It's raining right now, and it's raining in our kitchen too," Fauteux told CBC Windsor on Friday.

Environment and Climate Change Canada told CBC News Thursday evening that their radar had confirmed a tornado.

But the investigation by the Northern Tornado Project based at Western University involved inspecting the damage from the storm.

"What we're looking for is rotation that developed along the leading edge of all that wind," said Dave Sills, the project’s director, who spoke to CBC while surveying the aftermath.

"The radar indicated that it was there, and the radar also indicated that there was debris that was lofted high into the air… We just want to confirm that by looking for a long narrow damage path. If it's a downburst, it's more of a wide damage path."

In Windsor, the tornado damage track began at the riverfront at the foot of Buckingham Road and extended all the way to the Twin Oaks Industrial Park, according to latitude and longitude data in the tornado project’s report.

However, the most severe damage occurred immediately around Riverside Drive and Buckingham Road where one house had its roof torn off.

In Wheatley, the damage track began west of the Two Creeks Conservation area and extended to the shore of Lake Erie not far from the Campers Cove Campground, according to the report. The worst damage was seen just west of Talbot Trail.

The project labeled both the tornados and the downburst as EF1s, meaning they were associated with winds of 135 to 175 kilometres per hour.

Windsor resident Nicole Krznaric-Brieda said she was stuck on her way home from grocery shopping when the Windsor tornado hit because her car battery had died.

'There's a roof that landed on my house'

"I was panicking about that only to get texts from my neighbours asking if we were all OK — that there's a roof that landed on my house," she said.

"So yeah, to come home to this was crazy."

The city has always been a hotspot for tornadoes, Sills said.

"Windsor is right in that tornado alley, I guess you could say, that goes up from the U.S. and then along the 401," he said.

"We've had 111 tornadoes so far this year. That's on par for what we see this time of year, each year."

The project uses its data to verify Environment Canada’s tornado warnings so the weather office can assess the performance of its warning program, Sills said.

It can also help inform building code improvements and document the influence of climate change.

Heather Kitching reports local news for CBC stations across Ontario and the North. You can reach her at heather.kitching@cbc.ca.

With files from Emma Loop, Ken Amlin and Pratyush Dayal