Heavy rainfall floods Regina streets, submerges cars

Regina was hit hard with rain Tuesday night, getting almost 35 millimetres of it in an hour’s time.

It caused floods throughout the city.

“Thirty-two millimetres fell in less than an hour. That just overwhelmed the storm sewers and (caused) a fair bit of flooding,” said Mark Melsness, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

Photos shared online show deep pools of water forming in the streets and on sidewalks. It was the worst in underpasses, with cars submerged up to their roofs at the one at Albert Street and Saskatchewan Drive.

Southwest Saskatchewan had been on alert for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Melsness said there has only been one confirmed tornado so far, being reported from White City.

“It was brief and fairly weak,” he said. “We also had an unconfirmed report to the southwest of Pennant.”

Hail was also observed the size of loonies in Leader, he said.

Storm season shouldn’t last for much longer.

“Typically July is our busiest month and things start to taper off slowly in August. It gets pretty rare in September,” Melsness said.