Saskatchewan and Alberta battered by severe thunderstorms, tornado warning for Saskatoon

This morning there are rainfall warnings for northwest Saskatchewan including Candle Lake Provincial Park, Creighton, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay where 40 to 60 millimetres of rain is forecast. This comes off a wild night of extreme weather in the province with tornado warnings triggered Wednesday night for Saskatoon and area.

In Saskatoon it was nonstop thunder and lightning and a post on X from Sikwan Swan said they saw the tornado from Saskatoon’s Brighton neighbourhood.

Christine Thiessen posted on X Wednesday night as the severe weather peppered the area with hail which she said caused some dents in the hood and a few cracks in the windshield followed by a tornado alert with some cars actually having windshields blown out.

Numerous thunderstorm warnings were also issued across the province with more tornado warnings for North Battleford area, Hafford, Redberry, Vonda, Prud’homme, and on the southeast side of the province including communities such as Melville, Churchbridge, Langenburg, Moose Mountain, Moosomin, Rocanville and Wolsley – among others.

Radar images posted under the #SKStorm hashtag showed strong winds and hail, with some users reporting gusts over 100 km/h.

Environment Canada reports that early Wednesday evening, a fast-moving supercell tracked across southern Alberta bringing significant, damaging wind gusts and loonie to golf ball sized hail causing damage to property and trees. There were multiple power outages in Newell and Vulcan counties (as per Fortis Alberta). According to Alberta 511, Highway 1 was closed between Brooks and Bassano due to multiple collisions and downed power lines. Metal power lines flattened, trees and power poles snapped and damage to irrigation pivots was reported near Brooks.

At the time Environment Canada posted this information there had been no tornado reports from this severe thunderstorm at this time.