Abstract: The impact of tornadoes on building structures has predominantly concentrated on low-rise buildings. Recently, there have been frequent tornadoes in China, causing significant damage to the protective structures of high-rise building cluster under the influence of tornadoes. It is urgent to investigate the mechanism of tornado action and conduct risk assessment of tornado induced damage in high-rise buildings. The post-disaster survey of the July 5, 2024 Dongming tornado revealed significant cladding damage to high-rise buildings during its mature stage, with severity varying significantly across horizontal positions and forming a banded gradient along the tornado’s track. To investigate the mechanism of tornado-induced wind loads on the high-rise building cluster, rigid model pressure tests were conducted using a moving tornado-vortex simulator. Experiment results show how extreme wind pressures correlate with the site coverage ratio of surrounding buildings and quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of wind loads, accounting for key parameters including tornado track, distance from the structures, and inflow direction. By combining Gaussian fitting and skewness calculations of the tornado-induced loads, this paper assesses the cladding damage risk to the high-rise building cluster under different tornado paths, offering important references for enhancing urban building resilience.