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Storms are brewing in the southern parts of the province, and at least one tornado has been spotted.
Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said areas of Saskatchewan have been under severe thunderstorm watches today, so seeing storms starting to come together now isn’t a surprise.
“We knew that was a possibility, and now’s kind of that witching hour when storms are really starting to develop,” Lang said.
(Haiven Thomas/submitted)
She said severe storms are possibly more likely to form towards the southwest and central parts of the province.
Areas along Highway 16 and between Highway 16 and Highway 1 are some of the “higher risk” areas, Lang said, as well as the Yorkton area and north and east of it.
Environment Canada issued several tornado warnings for parts of Saskatchewan Wednesday.
Several witnesses have reported seeing a tornado near Watrous, Sask. just after 3 p.m.
Volunteer firefighter Jack Werezak said he was driving a truck just east of Young, north of Watrous, when he saw the tornado touch the ground.
He said he was several kilometres away from it, and he observed it on the ground for several minutes before the funnel cloud disappeared.
“It started really high up, a big funnel came out to the ground and all of a sudden you could just see the dust come up. So I stopped the truck and grabbed a couple of pictures,” he said.
Werezak said he believed the storm was moving northeast.
“I left the Highway 2 junction and I’m looking at this thing, and I got a hold of some of my crew on Highway 16 and they can see it all the way to Colonsay,” he added.
18-year-old Haiven Thomas also witnessed a tornado near the Manitou Beach Golf Club where she works, just after 3 p.m. She said it appeared as though two funnel clouds joined together to form a large “vase-like” tornado.
It appeared to be a few kilometres away from the golf club.
“It looked like it was coming right at us, but it was very slow and then it kind of just hit a curve, and then just missed the golf course,” Thomas said.
There were golfers on the greens at the time, she said, and others waiting to go out. Thankfully, she said, everyone was able to get back to the clubhouse safely.
“It was a lot of commotion, but then I called my bosses and we made a decision not to close the course down, because it wasn’t putting anyone in danger.”
She said the entire event – from the beginning of the storm to the time the tornado retracted – lasted only about half an hour.
After seeing videos, Lang said it appeared to be a land spout tornado, which tends to be short-lived and happens during weak thunderstorms. Environment Canada, she said, is still working to confirm that event.
“We don’t know if it touched down. We don’t know if there’s been any damage,” she said. “That’s unconfirmed at this point.”
The meteorologist said the risk for tornadoes is “slight, but not zero.”
Bigger threats to come out of this afternoon’s weather include large hail, gusty and potentially-damaging winds and flooding rains, Lang said.
Below, you can watch videos of the tornado submitted by CJME listeners.
–With files from Lara Fominoff.
