News/Media

Great Lakes

Wildlife

Kids

FAQ

Windsor Tornado - June 17, 1946

The story of the Windsor tornado has some interesting stories within the main story. Of particular note is the fact that the newspaper the following day doesn't have the Windsor Star Banner across the top of the page but rather - The Detroit News. Below the headline is a brief note - To the Readers of The Windsor Star -

"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."

When the extent of the damage became known, and when it was apparent that the power failure would prevent The Star being published, The News placed its facilities at The Star's disposal.

"This edition has been especially 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."

The tornado event has some other striking points of interest as well. For instance, in one instance a woman saved her three children by taking them out of the house and having them lie flat in a ditch. This is something that Environment Canada still endorses when no other suitable shelter can be found.

In another instance a man tries to outrun the tornado but it catches up with him, then veers off narrowly missing him. Even today, we suggest that people not try to outrun tornados, but rather move away from them at right angles where ever possible.

Throughout the accounts I read, I didn't see any quotes or references from eye-witnesses who said they had heard the sound of a train or locomotive. In most cases the accounts were similar in saying that it struck quickly and with great fury. There was hardly time for anyone to snap a picture but incredibly someone was prepared and caught some images of the actual funnel.

As in many cases then and now, the tornado struck late in the afternoon, - in fact it occurred at 6 o'clock and lasted just a few minutes.

There's no way to really tell for sure now what strength on the Fujita scale this tornado reached, but some of the pictures give a haunting clue. In one of the pictures a complete block foundation was removed from the ground where a building once stood. The Fujita scale was developed by Dr. Fujita to help measure the intensity of tornado strength. Here is how the scale breaks down:

F0 -	light damage - shingles off; 115 km/h
F1 -	Moderate - outbuildings with serious damage - 180 km/h
F2 -	Considerable damage - roofs off; 250 km/h
F3 -	Severe - Walls off; 330 km/h
F4 -	Devastating - Flattened; 410 km/h
F5 -	Incredible - Not a trace left; 500 km/h

The Windsor tornado shows all the signs of an F3-F4 tornado, from the images I've seen. The damage path was almost 35 miles long - US and Canada. Eye-witness accounts place the base of the funnel at 100 feet and the top at 400-500 feet. This may be accurate. The photographs show a slender funnel at ground level with a large debris cloud. The funnel widens quickly however and disappears into a blackened lowering of the main cloud deck called a "wall cloud". In one of the photos of the tornado, you can see a white stand at the lower left with a louvered box sitting on top. This is called a Stevenson Screen and was used to house thermometers from the Weather Office. The Stevenson Screen has been modified since that time but is still in use today. As well in the same photograph, a wind sock can be seen, lending evidence that these pictures were taken from the airport in Windsor which is located at the southeast corner of the city.

Courtesy of The Windsor Star

Here is a closeup of the funnel as it passed north of the Windsor Airport which is located in the southeast corner of Windsor or what was then called Walkerville. Note the Stevenson Screen - a white louvered box (foreground) used to house thermometers and also the wind sock (background) sticking out toward the east. Randy S. Mawson

Environment Canada wishes to thank the Windsor Star for allowing us to re-print some of the accounts from the June 18th edition. They also were instrumental in supplying most of the photos and were extremely cooperative with our request for information.

Candles, Lamps Mobilized as City Plunged in Gloom

Co-operation was the keynote of Monday night's disastrous tornado which struck fast and furious, leaving a wide path of destruction in its wake.

When it became evident that Windsor and vicinity would be without hydro for at least 12 hours and possibly longer, every effort was made to commandeer all possible flashlights and coal oil lamps which could be used satisfactorily in the three Windsor hospitals.

The Windsor Daily Star editorial room was the "calling station" where three members of the staff called owners of all hardware stores. In every case, no time was lost in getting the lamps to the place most needed. In some cases, where proprietors were unable to take their lamps to hospitals, Star trucks and private cars were used to pick up and deliver the borrowed lamps.

Within fifteen minutes at Grace Hospital, two cardboard cartons of flashlights, at least six large lanterns and quite a few lamps borrowed from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Detroit arrived to be put into use in the emergency.

In other places throughout the city, people were reading their newspapers and feeling their way around the house by candlelight.

Destruction Complete in Wake of Twister - Date June 18, 1946

Courtesy of the Windsor Star

Courtesy of The Windsor Star

Solemn aftermath to this district's greatest catastrophe was the verbal reconstruction by eye-witnesses of the tragedy which passed before their almost unbelieving eyes while they stood by helpless to assist. Almost hesitantly they told a Star reporter about the fury of the elements, scarcely believing themselves what they actually saw. But they 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.

This is what remained of one home in Windsor after the tornado struck. The concrete block foundation has actually been removed from the ground indicating there may have been marginal F5 tornado strength as per the Fujita scale. Randy S. Mawson

Orlo Farnham owes his life to the fact that he looked out of his new showroom and warehouse window just as the twister started on its drive of desolation. He yelled to his wife, Jean, who also was in the building, and they both got outside just as the fury of the wind leveled the concrete block building to the ground.

The Farnham home, a dozen feet to the west of the showroom was untouched.

Saw House Picked Up

"I saw the spout pick up a house on the other side of the tracks and hurl it into the air." Mr. Farnham told the Star, "I yelled to my wife when I saw it headed our way and just as we got outside it struck the building. If we had been inside we would have been killed."

"I would say the funnel was 100 feet wide at the bottom and 400 to 500 feet wide at the top. It was about the length of a city block in height. From our place it swept on to the home of Nelson Jones, next door, and it was completely destroyed." Another eye-witness was Walter Couvillion, who lives in a small frame house across the street from the Farnhams on Seven Mile Road, about two miles from the western city limits of Windsor. "I saw the Farnham building collapse and then cut over to the Jones house." Mr. Couvillion explained. "You could see debris, parts of houses and clothing being sucked up the funnel. You could hardly believe that such a thing was happening before your eyes." William Williamson, 3579 Bloomfield Avenue, Windsor, was on his way out to La Salle when he noticed the tornado spout curling its vicious way into the forbidding clouds. "I saw it pick up large pieces of wood and hurl them into the air like match sticks."

Courtesy of Malcolm Geast - Environment Canada

Bus Driver Saw It

Leo Dagenias, S. W. & A. bus driver on the Amherstburg run, was driving towards Windsor when he saw the ominous pillar of wind curling up from the direction of the Detroit River out at La Salle.

"I saw the spout and kept driving towards Windsor. But when I thought it was getting too close I stopped the bus right in front of the Farnham home. Then it passed just a few feet in front of the bus, ripping up the Farnham's building."

Mathew Flockhart, 502 Pierre Avenue, and Edmund Davlin, 891 Gladstone Avenue, were driving towards Amherstburg along Malden Road when they noticed the tornado approaching.

"I saw it gaining on me, so I stepped the car up to 60 miles an hour and still it gained on me. It caught up to the car and started bouncing it around the road. Then it veered off from the Malden Road. I stopped the car and watched it tear down houses and fences and trees."

First Eye-Witness Tells Graphic Story

by Thomas Brophey
Courtesy of the Windsor Star

"I've seen them in the west, but never one like that one," declared W.H. Coyle, 417 Oak Avenue, who gave a graphic account of the twister's sweep through the Brighton Beach area and the harrowing scenes that followed in it's wake. He was probably the first on the scene at Seven Mile Road.

"It seemed to have electricity in the centre of it. It wasn't black, the way some people have described it. It was grey, the shape of a cone, with the tip toward the earth." "It seemed to bounce along and every time the tip of the cone touched the earth there was a trail of smoke. It just seemed to pick or suck a house up and grind it to bits, dropping pieces of wood and debris all over the country."

Courtesy of The Windsor Star

A view, from the air of the path of destruction. Randy S. Mawson

Like A Flashlight

"Outside the cone, it seemed to be dark which made the cone in the centre look something like a flashlight. As it picked up a house, it seemed as though there was going to be a fire - and then the terrific wind seemed to smother the fire."

Mr. Coyle said of finding one battered body of a little girl. "The body was nude." And he saw Mr. And Mrs. Jones, of the Seven Mile Road. "The bodies appeared to those of mummies, with the features depressed instead of bloated, and the skin had taken on a sickly purplish hue."

Mr. Coyle met one woman who explained how she had saved her three children, by taking them out of the house and putting them in a ditch, throwing herself on top of them. Her house was completely destroyed, but her action had saved the lives of her children.

"I was standing at the corner of Chippewa and Sandwich," Mr. Coyle said, "when I saw it come in off the river, the other side of the Westwood Hotel."

"We started down Sandwich Street and when we hit the C.I.L. plant the fire trucks were there - they had stopped there, I guess, because of the C.I.L. tanks."

"Then an ambulance came along, tearing through and it went directly west. When we hit the Seven Mile Road, following it we could still see the cone-shape on the left."

Saw Jones Family

"We saw the Jones family first. The mother and father were about 20 feet apart. The mother was dead and my wife mentioned that the father seemed to be living. He lifted his arm and tried to move, but he was all black."

"A sailor and another lad found two of the children crawling through the field. They picked up one boy whose leg seemed to be chewed off and the blood was running all over them."

"Looking through the underbrush with a rake, I found the body of a little girl, about nine years old. She was bluish purple and her skull seemed to be filled with holes. The clothes were blown completely off her and her face was in the mud. She had been blown 150 to 200 feet from the home and we found her about 75 feet from the parents. We found another boy across the street, about 100 yards away."

Courtesy of The Windsor Star

In this scene, people try to salvage anything of value. In the background, Boy Scouts in uniform help out with the clean up. Randy S. Mawson

Lost Their Roof

"It was pathetic when a 16-year old boy, one of the Jones family, got off a bus and asked where his father and mother were. Someone pointed to them lying on the ground, but he seemed to dazed and said they weren't his parents. And so they led him away."

Another witness to the tragedy of the Jones family was Mrs. Orlo Farnham, of the massey Harris Agency on Seven Mile Road.

"Neither my husband nor I were touched as the roof was torn off. We ran outside and were immediately confronted with the blackened bodies of the Jones family. Mr. Jones was lying with his clothes torn and his right shoe stripped off."

"I rushed to our phone and called the ambulance and police. We found the body of a small baby in the ditch by the road," she added.

Mrs. Farnham was dazed and shocked when she spoke.

Though the roof of the Farnham agency was stripped and the cement blocks wall partially caved in, cans of alcohol and containers of oil still stood on the top shelf which had originally been directly under the roof.

The Farnham family also operates a riding stable, which is immediately behind the store. The roof of the stable was carried off with the twister, but the horses were not injured.

The Farnham home is about 20 feet from the home of Nelson Jones, which was spread over the landscape, and carried three of the Jones family to their death.

Top of Page
Français | Contact Us | Help | Search | Canada Site
What's New | Topics | Publications | Weather | Home | About Us