Tornado threat fizzles, large hail hits southeast Sask.

The early start to summer storms in Saskatchewan brought the first close call of the season.

Environment Canada warned about a tornado, as well as severe thunderstorms in the southeast Wednesday afternoon. By 3:30 p.m., all of the alerts had been cancelled.

Meteorologist Rose Carlson said Manitoba ended up receiving the brunt of the severe weather system.

“We did have a tornado warning that was issued for the Moosomin area. As the storm travelled into Manitoba we did get a report of a funnel cloud (near Hamiota). We haven’t received any reports of touchdowns.” said Carlson.

While the province escaped a tornado scare, the community of Welywn near the Manitoba border was hit by hail the size of golf balls.

Some photos of a storm that hit welywn Saskatchewan. Photo credits go to my dad.#skstorm pic.twitter.com/AFO2wzbhNt

— matt (@306StormChaser) May 10, 2023

Carlson said the outlook for Thursday shows the possibility of more thunderstorms appearing in the afternoon, but the activity won’t be as severe.

Meanwhile, people in communities along the U.S. border will need their rubber boots and umbrellas with several days of heavy rain in the forecast.

The weather office says Assiniboia, Carlyle and Estevan could get several inches of rain starting Thursday evening through Saturday.

Regina is expected to receive 1o to 15 millimetres from the system on Friday.