Heart of storm season brings hail, tornadoes
REGINA Saskatchewan’s storm season is well underway, and while the province’s storm chasers are eager for more action after an exciting start, farmers are still working to manage the damage left behind by the weekend’s weather.
Starting Saturday afternoon, a storm passed through southern Saskatchewan that produced three tornadoes and brought hail as large as baseballs in some areas, according to Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Several thunderstorm watches and warnings were also in place in parts of southern Saskatchewan on Tuesday. “We’re right in the heart of severe weather season,” she said.
“This is a classic weather pattern ... what we call a supercell. It was long-lived, it tracked a long ways and it produced every type of severe weather that we expect supercells to produce.”
All three tornadoes on Saturday came out of the same supercell — one near Glenbain, one that travelled between Kincaid and Woodrow and one near Assiniboia.
Hail ranging in size from loonies to baseballs also pelted the area.
Swift Current-based storm chaser Craig Hilts was following the storm as it developed.
“It started twisting up and dropped a tornado probably a couple of kilometres from us,” he said of the tornado near Glenbain.
After that tornado lifted off the ground, he continued to chase the storm and also saw the one that touched down near Kincaid.
“It dropped down and became really actually quite a strong, powerful tornado,” he said, adding that he would probably rank it as the top tornado he’s ever seen in the province.
Hilts normally chases storms across Canada and then into the United States, and with the southern border closed because of the COVID -19 pandemic, he is thrilled to get some action in closer to home.
Farmers whose crops and yards were hit by the storms, however, are still cleaning up after the most recent round of hail.
Derek Tallon, who farms near Lafleche with his wife Stephanie, was driving near his farm when he saw a tornado touch down around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
He went home, moved all the equipment he could indoors and then sheltered in his basement. Around 5:30 p.m., he heard the hail begin to rain down and could see a funnel still rotating in the clouds.
Tennis ball-sized hail pelted the farmyard and some of his crops, although he was thankful the tornado did not touch down on his property.
“In a certain area, the crops were completely wiped out,” he said. “Most of our cereals were far enough advanced that they’re not going to come back.”
The siding and several windows on his house were also damaged, and a few vehicle windows were blown out entirely.
Meaghan Ryersee said she and her boyfriend live in Saskatoon and were out visiting her boyfriend’s parents, Leon and Carol Bouvier, who farm near Meyronne, when the storm hit.
Watching the storm as it rolled toward the farm and then as a funnel cloud formed and touched down was unlike anything she had ever seen.
“It was a really surreal moment of excitement because we kind of figured this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a storm like this, but then we also got a little bit afraid,” she said.
She was grateful the tornado faded before it reached the farmyard, although the hail was not so kind.
“There was about baseball-sized hail that started falling from the sky,” she said.
Siding on the house was damaged, a window was smashed out of a truck and some crops were damaged, but Ryersee was grateful it wasn’t worse.
“We feel very lucky and blessed,” she said.