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Did tornado action cause some of the extensive property damage across Windsor and Essex County during Wednesday’s storm?
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Members of the Northern Tornadoes Project visited the region Thursday to survey the fallen trees, damaged homes and other property that resulted from the latest extreme weather event.
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“(The team) is starting in Blenheim, and will then move on to mostly Harrow and Colchester,” David Sills, the organization’s executive director, told the Star Thursday.
“They’re spending most of the day in that area, given the number of reports they received.”
Jeff Barker, a resident in Harrow which was particularly hard-hit by the storm, said a limb from a neighbour’s tree caved in his wife’s car, while a different branch from his own tree damaged his truck.
“We’re standing in the living room watching this all happen, and we feel the house shake, and I turn around and look in the back window and the tree that was in the middle of the backyard isn’t in the middle of the backyard anymore. Now it’s sitting on top of the pergola,” Barker said.
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Whether or not what happened can be officially categorized as a tornado, its impact was felt by thousands. Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy said on Thursday morning that around 3,000 residences in her municipality experienced loss of power due to downed lines.
“The damage is pretty extensive,” said Bondy, who has been receiving many messages and photos from citizens.
“In Colchester, Harrow, and Kingsville, I’ve seen uprooted trees, trees that crushed people’s sheds and vehicles, collapsed roofs.”
Based out of London’s Western University, the Northern Tornadoes Project closely collaborates with Environment Canada to improve tornado detection and advance tornado understanding across the country.
Sills said survey teams can determine from ground damage patterns if what occurred was a true tornado, which has a narrow but violent path, or a downburst — air gushing downward and outward from a storm.
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“They’re collecting data on how strong the path was, how wide and how long,” Sills said. “Sometimes, we can make a determination in 24 hours.”
Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Steven Flisfeder said that the highest wind speed reported on Wednesday by the weather observation station in Harrow was 91 km/h.
The observation station at Windsor Airport reported 87 km/h, while Chatham reported 85 km/h.
Tornadoes are measured on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the lowest level of which requires a wind speed of at least 90 km/h.
“The Harrow report would be the bottom end of the scale — EF zero — if it’s a tornado,” Flisfeder said.
“But we only have a few observation stations, so that doesn’t necessarily capture the strongest speed that occurred.”
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EF Scale aside, the circumstances on Wednesday were risky enough for Environment Canada to issue a tornado warning, which included mass notification via cellphones.
The City of Windsor followed suit with an automated call to all residents with that warning.
Flisfeder said the tornado warning came after escalation of storm advisories, storm watches, and storm warnings throughout the day. “Based on radar, there was rotation indicated,” he said.
The storms moved quickly. Flisfeder said the first round of heavy winds came and went from Windsor-Essex between 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday.
A second, less intense round happened later that night.
The high winds caused some curiosities. Essex’s mayor said one homeowner showed her a plastic birdbath that mysteriously found its way to their front yard.
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“It was kind of weird. She doesn’t own a birdbath, she doesn’t know of her neighbours owning it. The wind delivered it, right-side up, to her yard,” said Bondy.
If there’s something to be learned from the wrath of Mother Nature, Bondy feels it’s a lesson about emergency preparedness and helping each other.
“Our community is awesome,” Bondy said. “People are getting out there and cleaning up each other’s yards. They’re resilient and coming together.
“And it doesn’t sound like anyone was physically hurt.”
Members of the public who wish to report tornado evidence are invited to email the Northern Tornadoes Project at ntp@uwo.ca or make an online submission via uwo.ca/ntp/.
While Windsor-Essex still lies in the corridor considered Canada’s ‘Tornado Alley,’ Sills noted that in recent years, the eastern end of the corridor has been busier with tornado activity than the southwestern end.
“Since 2017, Windsor and Essex County have averaged zero to five tornadoes per year. In fact, last year, there were no reported tornadoes in that area,” Sills said.
“There have been three in Windsor-Essex—Chatham-Kent so far this year. We’ll see if that count increases after the damage assessments on Thursday.”
dchen@postmedia.com
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