The weekend severe weather threat brought tornadoes, hail and heavy winds to much of the province in one of our first severe outbreaks for the season.

Tornado Warned Storm Radisson-Photo Brennan ForsythTornado Warned Storm Radisson-Photo Brennan Forsyth

 

Friday saw slow moving thunderstorms move through west central and central and southern Saskatchewan. Heavy rainfall as much as 4-4.5” in some places. Davidson Saskatchewan saw a tornado warning Friday though no reports of an actual touchdown in the area. Biggar to Outlook saw a slow-moving cell drop heavy rainfall on those areas prompting severe warnings. 

Flooding GravelbourgFlooding following Fridays storms in Gravelbourg-Jenny Hagan

Sunday put the province on high alert for severe weather. Watches went out early afternoon with tornado watches for areas of North Battleford, Saskatoon and down to Outlook with severe watches for areas south of there. Storms blew up quickly across the province. 

Environment Canada issued around 7 tornado warnings in yesterday's storms. Stephen Berg with ECCC stated “We are investigating five unconfirmed tornados” Those communities are Melfort, Gravelbourg, Aberdeen, Meadow Lake and Radisson. 

Tornado Warned Storm GravelbourgTornado Warned Storm Gravelbourg Saturday-Jenny Hagan

Wind damage was reported in the community of Gravelbourg. A roof was torn from the Heritage B&B landing on vehicles parked next to it, as well as hail damage from golf ball size hail. As that storm moved into SE Saskatchewan the Estevan area had reports of baseball to softball size hail before the system exited into North Dakota. 

Gravelbourg Storm DamageHeritage B7B Gravelbourg Saskatchewan following tornadic storm-Jenny Hagan

It will take a few days for Environment Canada to investigate all the reports flooding in first thing Monday morning.