Windsor will never forget deadly tornado that destroyed the Curling Club
This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.
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Between Wednesday, April 3 and Thursday, April 4, 1974, there were 148 confirmed tornadoes across North America. Dubbed the 1974 Super Outbreak, the event included tornadoes that touched down in 13 U.S. states and one Canadian province.
Tomorrow, we'll be covering the F5 tornado in Xenia, Ohio, but today, we're going to discuss the sixth deadliest Canadian tornado.
On April 3, at 8:09 p.m., a tornado ripped through the Windsor Curling Club in Windsor, Ont.
That night, a local team was playing one of the season's last tournaments, so the arena was packed. There were six sheets of ice and they were all full. The team captains were all at one end of the building, and that's where the tornado hit.
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The tornado lifted the roof off of the west end of the building. It destroyed a wall constructed of large commercial-sized cinder blocks. Nine people were killed, most of them were the teams' captains. Another 30 people were injured as the twister tracked along its 22-km track.
Considering the construction, and the lack of impacts in the area immediately surrounding the curling arena, the damage from the 1974 #Windsor tornado has been rated at F1 on the Fujita scale (120-170 km/h). 4/5 https://t.co/8u3CXywvFl
Considering the construction, and the lack of impacts in the area immediately surrounding the curling arena, the damage from the 1974 Northern Tornadoes Project 🇨🇦 on Twitter: "Considering the construction, and the lack of impacts in the area immediately surrounding the curling arena, the damage from the 1974 #Windsor tornado has been rated at F1 on the Fujita scale (120-170 km/h). 4/5 https://t.co/8u3CXywvFl / Twitter" tornado has been rated at F1 on the Fujita scale (120-170 km/h). 4/5 Northern Tornadoes Project 🇨🇦 on Twitter: "Considering the construction, and the lack of impacts in the area immediately surrounding the curling arena, the damage from the 1974 #Windsor tornado has been rated at F1 on the Fujita scale (120-170 km/h). 4/5 https://t.co/8u3CXywvFl / Twitter"
— Northern Tornadoes Project 🇨🇦 (@westernuNTP) Northern Tornadoes Project 🇨🇦 on Twitter: "Considering the construction, and the lack of impacts in the area immediately surrounding the curling arena, the damage from the 1974 #Windsor tornado has been rated at F1 on the Fujita scale (120-170 km/h). 4/5 https://t.co/8u3CXywvFl / Twitter"
The tornado caused around $1.8 million worth of damage.
Louise Gulak was one of the survivors, but the tornado killed her husband. Gulak visited the curling club the next day and saw the extreme wreckage. Only the curling brooms were left hanging on one of the walls.
The Windsor tornado will always be a significant event in the city's history.
To learn more about the Windsor tornado, listen to today's episode of "This Day In Weather History."
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Thumbnail: A tornado near Bridgetown, Ohio, just west of Cincinnati, on April 3, 1974. Courtesy of Frank Altenau/Wikipedia
