'Significant damage': Tornado researchers outline 9-km downburst path near Chatham, Ont.
It happened May 16 around 2:15 a.m., according to the NTP, and resulted in intermittent damage across an area of approximately nine kilometres long.
May 16 storm touched down around 2:15 a.m., south of the city
A downburst near Chatham, Ont., early Friday morning struck several barns, farm buildings, hydro poles and trees, according to researchers, causing "significant damage."
Western University's Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) says the EF0 storm touched down south of the city carrying winds of roughly 130 km/h.
It happened May 16 around 2:15 a.m., according to NTP radar, and resulted in intermittent damage across an area of approximately nine kilometres long.
No injuries were reported.
"Similar downburst damage was reported in several other locations, from Windsor west of Chatham to Shrewsbury east of Chatham," the NTP said in an online report.
"Only this area of enhanced damage near Chatham was surveyed, however."
While the rotating winds of a tornado converge at the surface then rise up into a storm, often resulting in narrow paths of chaotic damage, downburst winds descend and diverge beneath the storm and result in outward burst patterns of damage or wide areas with damage mostly from the same direction, according to the researchers at Western University.
