Saskatchewan seeing uptick in tornadoes compared to ‘unusual’ past years

Tornado alerts have been a familiar sight on many people’s phones this summer in Saskatchewan.

According to Environment Canada, there is nothing unusual about it.

“The last few years have been running on the low side and I think that’s what is in people’s memories,” meteorologist Terri Lang said Monday. “The fact that we’re getting a lot of severe weather and a lot of tornadoes, it’s actually more normal than abnormal.”

In the summer of 2022, there have been 15 confirmed tornadoes so far — a significant increase from the eight in 2021, the nine in 2020 and the seven in 2019.

But the annual average for the province is 17.

Lang called the last few years “anomalies,” adding that droughts made it very challenging for twisters to form.

“The last couple of years have been unusual in that they’ve been quiet with respect to tornadoes and quiet with respect to severe weather,” she said. “What we’re having right now is very much a typical summer.

“Now that we’ve had an abundance of moisture, particularly over the southeast, that’s helping to fuel a lot of the storms.”

As for which area typically sees more tornadoes than other regions in the province, Lang had the details.

“It’s sort of through that southwestern area through the Moose Jaw area. That’s the region that would statistically get the most,” she said.

Saskatchewan is still far from its provincial record of 33 twisters, a mark that was set in 2012.

Tornado season in Saskatchewan usually starts in late May and lasts until the first few weeks of September.

Cleanup underway after tornado near Blaine Lake

The cleanup is continuing after a tornado touched down in the Blaine Lake area Friday afternoon.

Blaine Lake Fire Chief Thomas Lozowchuk says just one farm was damaged despite the size of the storm.

“There were hopper bins tipped over. (The owner’s) new horse trailer was tossed and you couldn’t even recognize it,” Lozowchuk explained.

“(There were) no injuries, but they did lose a horse and another horse was injured. The vets did come pick them up so hopefully they’ll be fine.”

Lozowchuk says thankfully the farm’s owners weren’t injured.

“He wasn’t home but his wife was. She was in the basement. We checked up on her and she was good — just shook up,” he said.

Lozowchuk said crews were prepared for the storm in case it did cause significant damage. He says the thing that surprised them was its size.

“We did have a staging area all set up with EMS, SaskPower and SaskEnergy just in case it did go to more farmyards or it did change direction and go into the town of Blaine Lake,” he explained.

“It caught us off guard how big it was,” he added. “Once it went to the one farmyard, it was maybe a quarter of a mile wide.”

Environment Canada has yet to give Friday’s storm an official grading as the weather office is still investigating.

Lozowchuk said neither he nor the owner of the farm had seen a storm like the one that touched down Friday.

“It was something I never really want to live through again,” Lozowchuk said.

980 CJME contacted the farm owner about the storm, but he declined to comment.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Shane Clausing