Touch down: Late summer twister confirmed in southeast Sask.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has confirmed a tornado touched down in southeastern Saskatchewan on Wednesday.
A severe thunderstorm system that swept across the province this week prompted a handful of tornado watches throughout the day.
The sole confirmed tornado touched down near Langbank just before 5 p.m. CST. Wednesday. Langbank is about 180 kilometres southeast of Regina.
The national weather service has not confirmed the strength or speed of the tornado. ECCC expects to be on site to survey the damage and investigate with help from the Northern Tornadoes Project, a Western University initiative that tracks and studies tornadoes across Canada with the goal of improving detection.
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A low pressure system over southern Saskatchewan mixed with a lot of moisture in the air create the dangerous conditions that produce tornadoes, said Natalie Hasell, a meteorologist with ECCC.
"Then with some clearing earlier in the day, we had a good chance of the air becoming unstable," Hasell said. "So everything came together for not only thunderstorms to form, but these small supercells, just enough for a supercell to form, which is the type of storm that is the most likely to produce a tornado."
Anyone with photos or videos of the damage this tornado caused is asked to get in touch with ECCC. Hasell said footage submitted by the public is essential to gathering data.
Langbank is about 180 kilometres southeast of Regina. (CBC Graphics)
"The information at the time of the event can help us understand a lot better what actually happened and help with the determination of the rating of the storm, which is based on damage," Hasell said. "Then we get a wind estimate. So having live data, so to speak, can help us fill in those gaps."
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While the worst of the storm is over, Thursday's forecast includes a risk of thunderstorms in eastern Saskatchewan and cooler temperatures across the province in the coming days.
"Whenever thunderstorms are possible, if things just line up, a small storm could produce something very severe. It might be short-lived, it might be one gust of wind, but it's always possible," Hasell said.
"Thunderstorms are dangerous whether they're severe or not because they're defined by lightning. So people still need to pay attention to that and take shelter as soon as possible and stay there as long as necessary."
This article, written by Jeremy Warren, was originally published for CBC News on Sept. 19, 2024
Thumbnail image courtesy: Kyle Stanhope/X
