Environment Canada says its lightning detection system nearly overwhelmed by loud overnight storm across Windsor-Essex

Environment Canada said a powerful storm early Wednesday morning in Windsor-Essex nearly overwhelmed its lightning detection system due to an unusually high number of lightning strikes.

Many people across the region took to social media, saying they were kept awake by the storm's loudness, which persisted until 3 a.m.

According to the national weather agency, parts of the region experienced three waves of storms: The first early Tuesday morning as people were waking up, a second during the supper hour and the final one overnight.

(Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)

"I used our lightning detection system to get a snapshot of what was happening between the Detroit River, south of Lake St. Clair and down towards Lake Erie and the Point Pelee area," said Geoff Coulson, warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment Canada.

"It registered almost 9,000 lightning strikes in half an hour, between about 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m., during the height of that last storm wave."

Coulson said Environment Canada's lightning detection system "caps out" at 10,000 strikes and it’s rare for a storm to hit that level.

"When it exceeds 10,000 lightning strikes, it sends all sorts of nasty messages saying you’ve exceeded my ability to show the lightning," said Coulson.

Source: Geoff Pekor.

The storm brought down several trees, including one that fell on a home near Howard Avenue and Cabana Road.

Coulson said wind gusts at the Windsor airport reached 80 km/h early Wednesday morning. While some parts of the region saw 40 to 50 millimetres of rainfall, Point Pelee recorded 70 millimetres in three hours.

The strong winds also knocked down four shopping cart corrals at the Zehrs grocery store on Malden Road.

"I got an email last night saying several cart corrals were tipped over in the parking lot, but we left it for the night because the winds were still high," said Bernie LaPierre of LaPierre Construction.

"I planned to come out here first thing this morning to do the cleanup. I have other stores to take care of, not necessarily wind-related, but this was the top priority to make it safe for customers."

Fallen cart corral. (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)

In a Facebook group for Town of LaSalle residents, Austin Welzel shared a post saying, "So we’re all just up at 3 a.m., huh?"

It received more than 350 Likes.

"I was in a deep sleep, but then I heard loud bangs of thunder. It scared me. The blinds were shut, so I opened the window and saw it was pouring rain," said Welzel.

"It woke everybody in the house up."

Despite the dark skies and strong winds, Environment Canada said there was no confirmation as of Wednesday evening that a tornado touched down in Windsor-Essex during the storm.