Sinister twisters

About 80 tornadoes strike Canada each year, killing and injuring people – and causing millions of dollars in damages. Here are Canada’s five deadliest tornadoes of the past century.

REGINA, Sask.

June 30, 1912

28 dead

As Regina residents prepared for Canada Day, a tornado with winds gusting to 300 km/h hit the city. The storm’s fury tore off a church cupola, crumpled railway tracks and sent grain elevators flying, leaving a swath of destruction 12 city blocks long and three blocks wide. An affluent residential neighborhood and much of the business district were gutted. In the end, the twister killed 28 people and left another 2,500 homeless.

One of the survivors was a 13-year-old boy who had been paddling on a man-made lake when the tornado struck. The winds picked up his canoe and set it down in a park a kilometre away. He escaped with nothing more than a broken arm.

On the Fujita Scale – which rates tornado intensity based on damage to human-built structures and vegetation – the Regina twister was ranked four out of a possible five.

EDMONTON, Alta.

July 31, 1987

27 dead

Edmonton residents were expecting severe thunderstorms that July day but suffered much worse. In less than an hour, a powerful F4 tornado, accompanied by torrential rain and hailstones the size of golf balls, ripped through the eastern part of the city and surrounding areas. It cut a path of devastation 40 kilometres long and almost a kilometre wide. The twister killed 27 people, injured more than 600 and left 1,700 people homeless. Damages were estimated at more than $300 million.

WINDSOR, Ont.

June 18, 1946

17 dead

This F4 twister touched down in Michigan before slamming into Windsor and nearby Tecumseh. The winds destroyed buildings and sent people airborne. The tornado killed 17 people and injured hundreds more. It ripped apart 400 homes and uprooted entire orchards. Damage was estimated at about $1.5-million.

PINE LAKE, Alta.

July 14, 2000

12 dead

This F3 twister hit a campground and trailer park about 25 kilometres southeast of Red Deer, Alta. Winds gusting to 300 km/h created a virtual dead zone almost 20 kilometres long and 1,500 meters wide. Some mobile homes were sent flying and others were obliterated. Some eyewitnesses reported seeing hail the size of baseballs.

When the storm was over, 12 people lay dead and more than 100 were left injured amid the destruction of close to 400 campsites.

WINDSOR, Ont.

April 4, 1974

9 dead

An outbreak of tornadoes struck Ontario and 13 U.S. states in a rare spring occurrence. About 148 twisters were reported in a single 24-hour period.

An F3 twister struck Windsor and surrounding areas on the night of April 4, 1974, killing nine people at a curling club and injuring another 20. The twister — which came with a storm featuring heavy rain and lightning — tore the roof off the club and damaged a mall that was under construction. It also tore the roof off part of a building at a car assembly plant. Its damage path was roughly 300-400 meters wide.

The flurry of storm activity that spawned the Windsor twister was known as the Super Outbreak. A mix of tornadoes from F2s to a now-infamous F5 that virtually razed the town of Xenia, Ohio, wreaked havoc throughout a 1,440-square-kilometre area of the US and Canada, killing hundreds and injuring thousands.