Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says it is investigating eight possible tornadoes that may have touched down across southern Saskatchewan on Thursday.
Reports range from the Saskatoon area to towns east of Estevan.
Crawford Luke, a meteorologist with ECCC, said the events are still under investigation and nothing has been officially confirmed. However, he described the scope of the reports as significant.
“To have eight tornadoes in a day would be quite substantial, I would say. Not a very common occurrence,” Luke said.
The system that triggered the storms was a sharp trough moving across the province, creating a sudden wind shift that acted as a catalyst for thunderstorms.
The storms were concentrated in a line stretching from near Saskatoon, through the Regina area and southeast to the Manitoba border, Luke said.
Luke said the suspected tornadoes include:
Environment Canada investigating 8 possible tornadoes in Sask.
Luke said ECCC uses multiples sources for their investigations.
“We had a bunch of storm spotters and storm chasers posting videos and pictures to social media,” Luke said. “We sort of take what we can get. Fortunately, in this case, we have a lot of eyewitness accounts and some pretty good radar data to work with.”
The possible tornadoes on Thursday could add to an already active season. Saskatchewan has seen four confirmed tornadoes so far this year — two on June 2 near Cut Knife and two on June 13 near Coleville and Hepburn.
Luke said it’s too early to tell whether this summer will be particularly busy.
“It’s really hard to forecast that. Tornadoes are kind of tough, because you could have a day like potentially what we saw yesterday, and then that can kind of bring your numbers up for the year quite dramatically all at once.”
He added that while there’s no immediate threat of more tornadoes, the season is far from over.
“It’s still June. We still have July, August, September. So I’m sure there’s going to be more severe thunderstorm days ahead.”
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One of the most dramatic storm visuals Thursday came from Saskatoon, where a video posted on Reddit showed a powerful lightning strike downtown. Luke confirmed that the same storm complex that may have produced the tornado near Young also brought that lightning storm through the city.
“It looked like it was a prolific lightning show that went through Saskatoon,” Luke said.
Luke encouraged residents to share photos, videos or damage reports by email or online. He said those public reports are often valuable to help meteorologists confirm what happened on the ground.
He also gave advice about what to do if you find yourself in the middle of a tornado warning.
“Get to the lowest floor, most interior part of a building, and try to put as many walls between you and the outside as possible.”
