YELLOWKNIFE - High winds on Tuesday knocked part of a tree onto the roof of a house on 53 Street.

Environment Canada recorded windspeeds that day at 20 km/hour with gusts up to 42 km/hour.

George Greyeyes stands beneath his neighbour's black poplar. High winds early Tuesday morning snapped off part of the tree and blew it onto Greyeyes' roof. Jessica Klinkenberg/NNSL photo

George Greyeyes was woken at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning by the sound of the tree branch landing on his roof.

"We had no idea (what the sound was)," he said. "I thought somebody fell down the stairs." Greyeyes said he raced from bed to find the source of the noise.

"I jumped out of bed and put my clothes on and ran around the house, trying to find the reason." A search of the entire house resulted in nothing out of the ordinary, but when Greyeyes went outside he discovered his neighbour's tree had snapped and now lay across his roof.

The broken tree branch fell off the roof later that morning. Greyeyes said no serious damage seems to have been done to the house, but by press time the tree had not been removed from the yard and the property had not yet been properly assessed.

The tree also fell across Greyeyes' garden, but he said there was no loss there because he hadn't planted in that half of the garden.