‘It was pretty scary’: People recount blustery evening in Saskatchewan

There was no shortage of intense weather throughout Saskatchewan on Friday evening.

Marlene Durkin lives in the Blaine Lake area, roughly 80 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

In her 20 years living there, she has never seen anything like what she saw.

Long day. Incredible moments and hope no one was hurt. The Tornado took on a few forms and I enjoyed the day with my friends. #skstorm pic.twitter.com/nZmZxjQuC2

— Jeff Wizniak (@WizniakJeff) July 9, 2022

“It was exciting and terrifying at the same time because we’d never seen a live tornado before,” Durkin said. “The kids and I ended up jumping in the vehicle and headed in the opposite direction.

“We saw it coming and then we thought it was coming to our house.”

Durkin says she was lucky not to have any damage to her home, but for her neighbours, the same couldn’t be said.

“There was a neighbour that got a lot of damage,” she said. “Almost looks like a total loss.

“It was pretty scary to see.”

A @weathernetwork viewer/reader uploaded this spectacular shot of the Friday tornado near Blaine Lake, Sask., to our photo gallery. : Patty Booth. #SKstorm #SKwx pic.twitter.com/poLmC6mDRW

— Nathan Howes TWN (@HowesNathan) July 9, 2022

Melinda Horner also lives in the area, she described the scene as “eerie”.

“It started hailing where I live first, and then I looked up and I saw the tornado,” she described. “It was blowing really good, left branches on my deck.

“Thankfully I was far from it.”

Horner says as fast as the system hit the region, it left.

“It just kind of slowed down and it just quit,” she said. “It just went calm.”

What a late evening storm in Mankota SK last night! #skstorm pic.twitter.com/a8fGxgq3az

— Tia Griep (@wxamorilla7) July 9, 2022

Environment Canada meteorologist, Shannon Moodie, believes there were at least four tornadoes that touched down.

The weather office says there were reports of three tornadoes near the Paynton area, about 60 kilometres northwest of North Battleford. The fourth was near Blaine Lake.

“It was a very busy night,” Moodie said. “There were a few places that saw some gusts over 100 kilometres per hour.

“(There was also) toonie-sized hail. There were reports of damage in the region.”

Moodie says there is a chance for some similar conditions on Saturday.

“There is still a lingering risk of some severe thunderstorms with severe wind gusts and hail to happen through the central part of the province,” she said. “And then overnight, we are looking at another round of severe thunderstorms that could be tracking through the southern part of the province, the extreme southern part of Saskatchewan.

“With that, there will be more threats of severe wind gusts.”

As of early Saturday afternoon, Environment Canada has no watches or warnings in place throughout the province.

You can see the latest weather alerts here.