2 tornadoes hit Windsor-Essex at the same time in Thursday's storm, investigators say

Investigators with the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) from Western University say Thursday's storm across southwestern Ontario resulted in twisters touching down in Tecumseh and Windsor at the same time.

Both occurred around 10:30 p.m. and lasted about 10 minutes causing destruction in both places.

David Sills, executive director for NTP, said they received about 100 reports of damage from Windsor and Tecumseh that helped researchers determine they were tornadoes.

"Being able to put all of those reports together and put them on a map, we can certainly see how they line up in a long, narrow track in each case," said Sills.

"There were no pictures of the tornadoes. It wasn't until we started putting together all of the different tornado reports that we could see that they were in narrow lines coming down from the north-northwest and aligned with rotation on radar."

Data shows the Tecumseh tornado was the stronger of the two, assessed as an EF-1 with an estimated maximum wind speed of 145 km/h.

It started in Tecumseh, running 14 kilometres down to Pleasant Park.

The tornado continued toward the southeast from Tecumseh into the Municipality of Lakeshore and went past Highway 401 to the northeast of Pleasant Park.

Residents find trees down, roof lifted off the home

Barbara Saxon lives in the path of the tornado the NTP charted in Tecumseh. She said she was in bed when she heard a "rumbling."

"[It] sounded like a train literally going over the house," Saxon said. "It shook the house. It was insane."

There's a significant amount of damage to the tree in her yard, as well as some damage to the roof. 

On Grace Road, Jim Cecile said his home had its entire roof lifted about an inch after he heard a large bang he initially believed was thunder. He didn't realize it until the next day, when family came over and pointed it out on the home. 

"We called the insurance .... and [it was] inspected this morning and said yes it was lifted about an inch: rafters, sheeting, shingles, the whole bit," Cecile said. "But it settled down, nothing is broken, we're safe. So life is good."

Cecile said his wife was looking out when she noticed the top half of their backyard tree was gone — and their neighbour knew something about that. 

"My neighbour, he's funny, he's 80, great guy. He called us and ... said 'are you OK?' My wife said 'we're OK but ... my tree is gone.' He says, 'Yeah, it's in my house. I'm branching out in the bedroom.'"

The confirmed tornado in Windsor was on the city's west side, according to NTP information, touching down around 10:30 p.m. Aug. 24.

It touched down along a path nearly 12 kilometres long, running from Sandwich Town, south-southeast through south Windsor, into LaSalle.

"Investigators say they've concluded an EF-0 twister — with speeds of 125 km/h — moved rapidly through the area," according to an online statement from the NTP.

"Start time is based on radar, which showed an area of tight rotation along the entire damage path. Note that radar suggests the entire event took less than 10 minutes."

According to their tracking, Sills says Canada's overall tornado activity has been down somewhat this year, with the exception of the Windsor and Ottawa areas.

Sills said historically Windsor-Essex has been able to avoid the amount of severe summer weather systems Michigan and Ohio often see because of Lake Erie providing "protection."

"You get that lake air moving in from the south over Essex County, and it tends to cause storms to dissipate after they cross over from Michigan. But, you know, in certain setups like the one we had where you've got tornadoes and storms coming down from the northwest, Lake Erie is not going to help you there." 

Tammy Meloche and her family own Meloche Acres near Cottam. She said there's been at least $10,000 in damage to her farm — including to the hay, gear and barn — and she was scrambling to keep her horses out of nearly a foot of water for days. 

"We brought in new stall mats and that wasn't going to work so we decided to bring in manure from the back pile, building it up so they'd be standing above water," Meloche said. 

Meloche said the family's farm first started flooding on Wednesday, and water persisted until Friday. They're also building an addition onto their home, and it too was damaged by the flooding. 

Now, the family is struggling to clean up. 

"It's just put us in an impossible situation."

Downbursts in Lambton County and Chatham-Kent

A downburst was also reported from Thursday's wild weather in the region on the northeast side of Chatham.

Around 11 p.m. NTP data suggests numerous trees were uprooted and snapped, and had large branches broken. There was also roof damage to several homes.

Investigators say wind speeds were as high as 125 km/h when the downburst struck.

Another downburst, but from the previous night's storm, Aug. 23, has also been confirmed in Lambton County.

It was near Dresden, at the south end of Lambton County around 6:30 p.m. 

Barns were damaged and trees were snapped over a wide area. 

Unlike tornadoes, winds from downbursts go beneath storms resulting in outward burst pattern with wide damage paths.

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