Nancy Whittle's Mini was crushed by a fallen tree.

Environment Canada has confirmed it was three tornadoes — not one — that wreaked havoc in southern Essex County during the early morning hours of June 6. The first, rated an F1 on the Fujita scale, touched down near Harrow, Ont., while the second and third — an F2 and F1 — tore through southern sections of Leamington.

When I visited the community a few days after the severe weather struck, cleanup crews were still in high gear, clearing debris from streets and yards. The destruction was at its worst along Highway 18 just west of Sherk Street, where houses were splintered and greenhouses shattered. Seacliff Park, near the pier, lost many of its stately trees. In the Cherry Lane subdivision, where my wife and I once lived, large trees where split, shredded or uprooted, while many younger trees seemed to survive unscathed. A little farther east, tree damage was heavy at the Erie Shores Golf and Country Club, while greenhouses and barns were twisted or flattened on farms.

Despite the millions of dollars worth of destruction, however, not a single life was lost. That became the focus of a column I wrote for Sun Media later in the week.

Homes along the north shore of Lake Erie took the brunt of the F2 tornado's destructive power.

The Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory at UWO

When it comes to community involvement and making impressions on young minds, it’s tough to beat the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario.

For many years, the astronomy faculty and students, supported by volunteers from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada‘s London Centre, have offered public lectures and viewings of the stars at the campus’s Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory. The facility is open on clear Saturday nights during May, June, July and August for lecture presentations and stargazing, but it opens its doors on special occasions through the rest of the year as well.

Yesterday’s cool and clear evening provided a great chance to study nearby planets. The observatory’s refractor telescope, as well as three other reflector telescopes, were trained on Saturn and Venus. I’d guess about 100 people were there at various points through the evening (8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.). Roughly half of those took in a 45-minute-long lecture on meteors and meteorites by astronomy professor Margaret Campbell-Brown at about 8:45 p.m. RASC London Centre volunteer Bob Duff and Western astro prof Peter G. Brown helped manage the public viewings.

The age range of participants last night was impressive — from little ones sitting on parents’ shoulders to people in their 60s. One rather precocious junior astronomer, who couldn’t have been more than 12 years old, asked the majority of questions (and informed ones, too) during the Q&A following Campbell-Brown’s talk.

A young patron gets a chance to view Saturn through the observatory's refractor telescope.

Through the school year, the UWO department runs a community outreach program called “Exploring the Stars,” geared to a wide range of age and interest groups. See the website for additional information. Later this summer, the university will hold two open houses at its Elginfield Observatory, home of its research telescope, as well.