Accessibility Links
1946 Windsor tornado
A tornado is the stuff of nightmares. Amid heavy rain and hail, huge thunderclouds roll in and the skies turn greenish-black. And then a rope-like funnel cloud punches down, smashing everything in its path. Tornadoes can be the most violent storms on earth, and Canada averages 80 of them each year. From scientists and storm chasers obsessed with their destructive power to the victims left in a twister's wake, we look at Canada's deadliest tornadoes of the past century.
. The Windsor to Tecumseh tornado was the third-deadliest tornado in Canadian history. Seventeen people were killed and hundreds more were injured. Some 400 homes were damaged or destroyed, orchards were uprooted and 150 farm buildings were smashed. The damage was conservatively estimated at $1.5 million.
. In 1974 another devastating tornado tore through Windsor. It was the fifth deadliest in Canadian history.
. The 1946 Windsor to Tecumseh tornado is estimated to have been an F3 or F4 tornado, with a funnel as high as 150 metres. The following day's Windsor Star reported that eyewitnesses "all told the same story - a story of utter destruction - a story of buildings being smashed to the ground as if by a giant unseen triphammer - a story of bodies strewn about like driftwood left on the shore by an angry sea."
. The Windsor Star newspaper from that day actually carries the front page banner of the Detroit News. Beneath it was the following note: "Crippled by the terrible disaster which struck Windsor last night, the Windsor Star is enabled today to bring news of the holocaust to its readers through the kindly co-operation of the Detroit News. This edition has been especially [prepared] for the regular readers of the Star and contains the news and pictures of the disaster gathered by the combined staffs of the News and the Star."
. By province, Ontario has the highest number of reported tornadoes in Canada, with 189 recorded between 1950 and 1997. However, this may in part reflect southern Ontario's high population density. Almost any tornado that forms is likely to be witnessed and reported.
. The combined Prairie provinces experience about 60 per cent of all tornadoes that occur in Canada. Together, Ontario and the Prairies are home to more than 90 per cent of all tornadoes in Canada.
. War brides such as the woman interviewed in this clip were British and European women who married Canadian servicemen in the Second World War. You can read more about them in the CBC Archives topic Love and War: Canadian War Brides.
Program: CBC Radio News
Broadcast Date: June 18, 1946
Guest(s): Mrs. Oaks, Mrs. A.L. Wheeler
Reporter: Val Clare
Duration: 4:39
Photo: Malcolm Geast, Environment Canada
Last updated: July 12, 2012
Page consulted on August 22, 2012
All Clips from this Topic
-
Death, looting and a frightened "little war bride" in the wake of a te...
-
Eyewitnesses and a meteorologist describe a major tornado in southwest...
-
A 1957 ride-along with a storm chaser in the U.S. tornado belt.
-
A community pulls together after a rare tornado strike in northern Ont...
-
A radio report from the scene of the Canada's seventh deadliest tornad...
-
Strange stories of death and survival from the deadliest tornado in Ca...
-
Bob McDonald explains wind, storms, hurricanes and how tornadoes are f...
-
When farms are destroyed, modern-day Good Samaritans arrive with aid.
-
From Friday's terror in the darkness to Sunday's prayers in church, 48...
-
How much are all your possessions worth?
-
A documentary look at a family's six-month effort to piece their lives...
-
Canada's deadliest tornado in 75 years kills 27 and injures hundreds.
-
An unlucky farmer has his barn ripped apart by two tornadoes a year ap...
-
A tornado damages at least 70 per cent of a small town.
-
The Fighting Prairie Weather Dogs hunt down Canada's worst weather.
-
We have radar, satellites, observers and transmitters, but never enoug...
-
An Alberta campground is wiped out, and rescuers can't tell how many p...
-
A tornado is the stuff of nightmares. Amid heavy rain and hail, huge t...