REDVERS — While it appears the RM of Antler averted a tornado on July 3, the storm still caused some damage.
Environment Canada issued multiple tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for the RM on July 3. The first one came just after 5 p.m., but it was lifted a short time later. Subsequent tornado warnings were issued due to the threat of such a storm, and the last one was lifted at 7:33 p.m.
Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said they haven't had confirmation about a tornado. Multiple storm chasers were in the area and in southwest Manitoba, and .
"To this point in time, we've been unable to get any verified reports of any tornadoes," Proctor told SaskToday. "We saw a bit of a rotation on radar, but nothing that indicated that it was a particularly tornadic kind of day. More than anything else, it appeared to be a big wind day, a … plow wind day more than anything else."
Peak wind speeds for the RM were not immediately available, he said. The strongest wind reports they've received were around Morden, Man., at 148 kilometers per hour when he said the storms were maturing.
Proctor said Environment Canada is expecting to see additional severe storms in the southeast. July tends to be the most active month for severe weather on the Prairies.
"Crops are still, at this point in time, growing rapidly and transpiring rapidly, which is producing much more moisture available for thunderstorms," said Proctor. "So, the transpiring crops really provide the fuel for thunderstorms."
RM of Antler administrator Jocelyne Toms said she was on her deck and watching how the clouds were swirling. Then she said it became "eerily" still.
"You can see up in the sky, the clouds were almost … sucking backwards, and then you can see everything just really swirling. It was a really cool photo opportunity until I started getting a little nervous myself, and I went inside for some shelter."
Neighbours who are about five kilometres to the north received really large hail that she said which was the size of a baseball or a softball. Toms has already received a couple of hail claims, and she believes the northeast side of the RM received the most damage.
Reeve Bernard Bauche added he was standing in his main farmyard about 13 kilometres east of Redvers, and watched the storm with his son and his family. They saw the storm unravel itself, he said, and a really bad cloud was moving his way.
"People west of town were seeing this cloud and they were talking back and forth, but our yard itself we didn't receive too, too much."
But there was still more than an inch of rain and some hail.
There is damage on all of their acres, he said, but 500-700 acres of one farm north of the Bauche property was totally hailed out. But he didn't initially see any trees uprooted or buildings demolished.
"It must have come down awfully hard with some wind. I didn't experience it, I wasn't there, but I see the damage now."
Bauche noted a severe storm wasn't in the initial forecast July 3 but the projections changed around noon.
Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for several southeast RMs as well, with hail, heavy winds and strong winds also reported.
