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With rainfall, thunderstorm and even tornado warnings, it looks like southern Saskatchewan is getting a month’s worth of severe weather all in one day.
A tornado warning was issued for the areas of Carlyle, Oxbow, Carnduff, Moosomin, Grenfell, Kipling and Wawota areas Monday evening. Those tornado warnings all ended by 9 p.m. In southwestern Manitoba, Envioronment Canada confirms a tornado touched down near Melita.
CJME Weather Specialist John Wilson says a band of thunderstorms came up from the southeast.
“This whole system is winding up over Montana and when I say winding up, I mean it’s got a lot of spin to it and the winds are already up with this thing; it’s going to be quite windy for the next 24 to 36 hours and the system has quite a lot of rain to it,” he said on Monday morning.
A rainfall warning was put into effect for most of the southern half of the province early Monday morning reaching from the southwest corner near the Alberta border through to the Manitoba border near Hudson Bay. Regina, Moose Jaw, Outlook and Humboldt are all under the weather warning.
Environment Canada issues a warning when a significant amount of rain is expected in a short time span.
For photos and video of the storm click here for our continued coverage.
About an inch of rain (20-30mm) fell as a large storm passed over Regina Monday evening. He’s predicting another 15 to 25 millimetres overnight and even more on Tuesday. Regina also saw localized flooding Monday night, turning streets in the city’s northwest into ponds.
“The total rainfall in spots could be 50 to 80 millimetres which is about three inches of rain at once and that’s more than some of these farms have had since April,” Wilson explained.
He says the system is spinning on the surface, creating rotating thunderstorms which carry the risk of tornadoes. That brought several teams of storm chasers to the Estevan area.
“This is one of the highest-risk tornado days and severe thunderstorm days that we have seen in Saskatchewan in 2015,” said Tornado Hunter Greg Johnson.
His team is focusing on an area between Estevan and Gainsborough along Highway 18. He says tornadoes are extremely hard to predict. His advice is to stay inside and pay attention to Environment Canada warnings.
If you do have a tornado warning in your area, stay inside and try to get underground. If you can’t get underground, the best place to be is in an interior room like a bathroom.
AChristianson@rawlco.com
Follow on Twitter: @AdrianaC_JME
