The Northern Tornadoes Project says two suspected tornadoes went through east Windsor and Amherstburg on Thursday afternoon.
Dr. David Sills, the Director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in London, says radar detected tornado debris in the air as the storm moved through the region.
He says rotation was detected on radar in the Hamtramck area, the West Village of Detroit, before crossing the Detroit River into Windsor.
Sills says areas including Riverside and Forest Glade in Windsor were heavily impacted, with significant damage reported, as well as down River Canard to McGregor in Amherstburg.
He says the team will be in Windsor-Essex on Friday to survey the damage and determine if a tornado officially touched down.
“Just to confirm tornado damage and get an idea of how long the track is. That rotation with that spin up along the leading edge there went all the way to Pleasant Park well into Essex County, so, it might be a longer track tornado that actually crossed the river there and so that’s the kind of thing we’d be looking for.”
Sills says east Windsor was hit very hard, but so was Essex County.
“There was another area where there was rotation and this debris signature and that was down River Canard to McGregor and another area there where it looks like there was a spin up along the leading edge that may have been a tornado. So we’ll be investigating there too.”
He says Thursday’s storm caused widespread damage.
“With these lines of storms and the tornadoes that can develop along the leading edge, you can have a mix of straight line wind damage that’s pretty serious and then tornadoes embedded in that damage. So, there’s likely a large area of damage with this storm and pockets of enhanced damage with the tornado.”
Sills adds that the storm went through fairly quickly, so it didn’t have a chance to cause too much in the way of flash flooding. He adds that there wasn’t any hail reported either.
Windsor Police are reminding residents that downed trees and wires that are not sparking or on fire can be reported to 311. Only call 911 in the event of an emergency.
A number of roads in Essex County are impacted by debris. Drive with caution.
Widespread power outages are still in effect throughout Windsor and Essex County, according to ENWIN and Hydro One outage maps.
-with files from AM800’s The Shift with guest host Kyle Horner