‘Tornado outbreak’: Environment Canada looking into eight ‘likely’ tornadoes in Sask.

Thursday ended with a twist in Saskatchewan, with Environment Canada investigating eight “likely tornadoes” in the province.

On Friday morning, meteorologist Eric Dykes said the tornadoes are not confirmed yet, as the weather service is still collecting information.

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“We could call it a tornado outbreak,” he said.

“We’re using the term ‘likely’ here when we talk about these tornadoes, so it’s certainly more in the affirmative that these did touch the ground.”

Dykes said the twisters were mostly spotted in eastern Saskatchewan, east of Saskatoon and down towards the southeast corner of the province. He said that includes a couple in the Estevan area, a couple more further north of that, and additional sightings east of Saskatoon.

“It was kind of along where a warm front was,” the meteorologist explained. “That is where we saw a lot of the tornadoes developing.”

The tornadoes were not unexpected, according to Dykes. He said the storm systems that moved through Saskatchewan on Thursday were primed for the development of tornadoes.

“Sure enough, Mother Nature brought that and more to the span of what we deemed to be eight likely tornadoes that were spawned out of about four or five different thunderstorm cells that crossed portions of Eastern Saskatchewan during the late afternoon and early evening,” he said.

Dykes said Environment Canada will be investigating on Friday to determine exact details about the likely tornadoes, including how strong they were, how long they were on the ground and their exact locations.

“There could be more that we don’t know about as well,” he added.

Dykes said the weather services occasionally has to sort through fake images posted online by people claiming they saw a tornado.

“It is unfortunate that it’s the case, but it’s something that we’re concerned about. We have to cross our t’s, dot our i’s, and work with the Northern Tornadoes Project in order to confirm these tornadoes,” explained Dykes.

Harold Posehn lives on a farm near Kronau. While driving on a grid road near his farm on Thursday, he said he noticed what appeared to be a funnel cloud swirling towards his neighbour’s home, so he decided to follow it.

Harold Posehn said he followed the tornado toward his neighbour’s home. After ripping through the yard, he said the tornado continued east. (Harold Posehn/Submitted)

“It did quite a bit of damage to the house, some sheds and storage buildings,” he said.

“It looked like one of those shipping containers rammed into the house and it took shingles off the house and the siding was missing.”

When driving towards his neighbour’s farm, Posehn said visibility got so poor that he had to pull over.

“It was quite dusty and you couldn’t see anything,” he said. “The truck was rocking pretty good.”

Rainfall warnings expected to hit parts of Sask. Friday

Much-needed rain is expected to drench the southern half of Saskatchewan this weekend.

Dykes said it may prompt rainfall warnings.

“There’s going to be ample amounts of rain, especially in the southwestern portion (of the province), over the next 48 hours or so,” he said.

Dykes said areas around Outlook, Kindersley and down towards Leader are expected to get hit the hardest, with around 50 to 70 millimetres of rain expected to fall by the end of the weekend.

“That moisture is just going to move right across the province from west to east as the weekend progresses,” he said, “so everyone’s going to get something by the looks of it, by the end of the weekend.”

Regina could get as much as 30 millimetres of rain throughout the weekend, while Saskatoon could get upwards of about 50 millimetres.

–with files from 980 CJME’s Nicole Garn