Golfball-sized hail hits southwestern Saskatchewan

A large storm hit southwestern Saskatchewan on Saturday night, bringing heavy winds, flooded streets and hail the size of golfballs.

My cousin Troy just sent me this video of the crazy storm that hit Swift Current. Yikes! #skweather @EWilliams_CBC @torygillis pic.twitter.com/Y01SPgPwLi

— Eric Anderson (@ericandersonyxe) July 23, 2023

Environment Canada was alerted about a storm that popped up northwest of Swift Current just after 6 p.m.

The storm then moved southeast and hit Swift Current just before 6:30 p.m. and eventually tracked all the way down to Montana before it weakened.

“There (were) golfball-sized hail and wind gusts too, I believe, 83 kilometres an hour reported, and then it’s just left a trail of large hail and occasional wind damage as it went southeastward,” said Dave Carlsen, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

Our 7pm start time with @mhmavericks is not likely. pic.twitter.com/mJTcpyhZW2

— Swift Current 57's (@swiftcurrent57s) July 23, 2023

There were several tornado warnings issued during the storm, which were later lifted.

“South of Glenbain around 8 p.m. there were some green bins tossed. We don’t really know what was the cause of that if that was straight line winds or tornado winds,” Carlsen said.

“We did have tornado warnings for a lot of the storm’s life as it was moving southeast. It looked quite impressive on the radar. But we didn’t receive any reports of tornadoes happening during this time. (That) doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but that just means that we didn’t get any reports.”

Carlsen said there also was a chance for more storms Sunday.

“If you draw a line from say Kindersley, the Battlefords southeast through Regina and Estevan, that’s the area where we can expect some storms today,” he said.

Heat warnings

Much of southwestern Saskatchewan was under a heat warning.

“There’s just a hot dome of of air in the northern United States and in the western prairies. And that’s going to be affecting the area over the next couple of days,” Carlsen said.

Carlsen said the heat wave will likely subside around early midweek.

Once the heat wave passes, Carlsen said the highs will be below 30 C for highs.