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The scene at Country Thunder before the storm hit on July 13, 2019. (Greg Morgan/980 CJME)

Country Thunder battered by severe thunderstorm

By CJME News Jul 13, 2019 | 5:16 AM

Country Thunder lived up to its name Saturday night.

At 9 p.m., Environment Canada issued severe thunderstorm warnings and watches for a number of centres in southern Saskatchewan. Craven and Lumsden were placed under a severe thunderstorm warning.

That prompted Country Thunder festival organizers to call a halt to proceedings.

At 10:30 p.m., Environment Canada’s radar showed that the thunderstorm was “located near Craven and was moving toward the east at 50 (kilometres per hour).”

The warning said the storm “was capable of producing loonie-sized hail and winds in excess of 100 km/h.”

Environment Canada ended the warning for the Craven-Lumsden area just before 11 p.m.

At 11:30 p.m., Country Thunder organizers sent out a tweet that said the performance by headliner Tim McGraw wouldn’t be happening.

The storm produced a number of texts and tweets during the evening, including a video by Regina realtor Craig Adam.

Festival-goer Jeff DeDekker said things changed significantly during the day.

“It’s very surreal,” he said just after 9:30 p.m. “We went from an afternoon where it was very hot (with) lots of sun (and) blue sky and now the sky is like a really black, dark blue, lots of lightning and the temperature has dropped significantly.

“Organizers have emptied out the main stage area. Even the backstage area where the VIPs are, they’ve been told to go to their campsites as well to seek shelter.”

The scene at Country Thunder on July 13, 2019. (Submitted by Kathy Deck)

DeDekker, who has attended the festival for many years, said he had seen a postponement just once in his years at Craven. A thunderstorm forced a 15-minute delay during a Ricky Skaggs performance a few years ago, but the country star eventually returned to the stage.

“This, I think we’re in for a big storm,” DeDekker said. “The lightning is very wicked and if the radar pictures are any indication, we’re in for a long night.”

Safety was obviously the organizers’ first concern. DeDekker said they had an announcer take the stage three times to tell people to leave the concert area and seek shelter in their campers or their cars.

Just after 10:30 p.m., DeDekker texted in to 980 CJME to say the hail was the size of ping pong balls and the wind was “crazy.”

Shelley Hellquist, who also was in attendance Saturday, said security came to the campgrounds and told people to go to the grandstand. Halfway there, they were told to return to their campers.

“We actually ended up running to the Craven Bar, so we’re sitting in shelter at the Craven Bar right now,” Hellquist said. “It’s not looking good. There’s a lot of cloud-to-ground lightning (and) it’s raining like crazy.”

Travis Tritt was on stage when lightning started flashing and his performance was stopped. He later took to Twitter to say his show was permanently cancelled.

As the storm started to hit, organizers took to Twitter to keep patrons up to date.

On Saturday afternoon, Environment Canada issued tornado warnings for areas around Kindersley and Rosetown, but those warnings were lifted just before 8 p.m.

Watches mean conditions are right for the development of dangerous thunderstorms that could produce strong wind, damaging hail and heavy rain. Warnings mean those storms are likely already happening.

Photo of storms near Frobisher, Sk. Courtesy Rhonda Sandquist on Twitter

A tornado warning was issued for about an hour for the Oxbow and Bienfait areas. It wasn’t clear if any touched down, but there were some photo showing up on social media of potential funnel clouds near Frobisher, which is east of Bienfait. The warning ended at 5 p.m.

 

 

 

 

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