‘Shock of my life’: Downburst rips through Chatham-Kent destroying barns and buildings

Northern Tornadoes Project confirmed an EF0 downburst happened May 16. CTV London’s Brent Lale reports.

A flattened barn, roofs ripped off and trees uprooted - that’s the aftermath of a severe weather event which recently ripped through Chatham, Ont.

“I woke up and I heard this high-pitched scream like a tornado went through,” says Judy O’Rourke, who had her barn destroyed on 6th Line E. in Chatham-Kent.

“They have a train whistle sound and it just it was awful. I thought the roof of the house was going to come off.”

That was 2 a.m. on May 15, 2025. A few hours later O’Rourke woke up to discover her barn had collapsed.

“I looked out the window and I got the shock of my life.”With damage ranging from Michigan to Southeast of Chatham, the research team from Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) was called in for analysis.

“We found evidence of a downburst that caused the collapse of a barn, damage to other farm buildings, some trees down, some hydro poles down,” says Dave Sills, executive director of NTP.

“It turned out that due to the destruction of the barns, it was rated at EFO. The very top end of EFO so 130 km/hr winds.”

No injuries were reported however intermittent damage was found over an area approximately 9.0 km long and up to 1.5 km wide.

Gary Clark lives two farms away from O’Rourke, and he had his barn door ripped in half.

“I got some trees uprooted, which I’ve never in my life seen that happen here before,” says Clark.

“Cedar trees tossed different directions. Damage ended up several directions. I’m lucky compared to some of the others down the road. At least it’s just fixing the door, and not the whole barn.”

The downburst took nearly a straight line down the road, but Clark has a difficult time understanding why some buildings were hit, and others were not.

“It would have been neat if it actually been daylight to see it happen because I can’t quite comprehend exactly what it was,” says Clark.

This is the third major weather event in southwestern Ontario this year. There was a microburst near Lucan, Ont. near the end of March and on April 29 in there was widespread damage and power outages across the region.

Sills says they are still working on collecting the data and reports from that storm.

There have been tornadoes in Quebec and the Prairies in 2025, but not in Ontario.

“With a downburst, you’ve got air that’s coming out of the thunderstorm and spreading out,” says Sills, describing the storm.

“With a tornado, you’ve got air that’s coming in under the thunderstorm and then going up. It’s basically down and out versus in and up.”

O’Rourke has already had an insurance adjustor as well as the hydro company on site over the past couple of days.

It’s going to be a long cleanup for her and her neighbours.

“It came down here and then it went to the next farm and it came down there, and then it kept on going. It was awful,” says O’Rourke.