Five Sask. communities recorded wind gusts of 100 km/h or higher Saturday

Estevan was the windiest place in Saskatchewan on Saturday, recording wind gusts as high as 107 kilometres per hour.

The high winds were caused by an Alberta clipper which steamrolled across Saskatchewan on Saturday, bringing wind gusts well over 100 km/h and leaving quite a bit of chaos in its wake. The storm toppled trees, pushed over vehicles, and led to the closure of at least two highways in the province. Power outages were also reported in some areas.

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“Probably one of the windier days this year, and a similar severe wind event that we seem to get every few years across southern Saskatchewan,” said Brad Vrolijk, lead forecaster with Environment Canada.

Damage to a tree in the Regina area was seen after Saturday’s storm. (Submitted)

Vrolijk said Coronach, Yellow Grass, Bratt’s Lake and Weyburn also had wind gusts of 100km/h or higher during the storm. Regina was close behind, with wind gusts recorded as high as 98 km/h.

“You’re not going to see winds that high in urban areas very often,” said  Vrolijk. “It’s also abnormal out of the city as well.”

As for Saskatoon, Vrolijk explained that the Bridge City was on the edge of the windy conditions, recording wind gusts up to 76 km/h.

A semi rollover one mile north of Dewdney on the Bypass caused by the wind on Oct. 5, 2024. (Regina Fire/X)

Vrolijk said the cold front that rolled through the province on Saturday brought westerly winds behind it, instead of the more common northwest flow.

“We often see those westerly flows in behind cold fronts across southern Saskatchewan/ They tend to be a bit drier and they can be very strong,” said Vrolijk.

“If you kind of look at the history, a lot of our severe, large-scale wind events across southern Saskatchewan tend to be in this sort of setup, with a westerly flow across the region.”

Vrolijk said the storm system was beginning to move off on Monday morning, with more settled conditions and warmer temperatures expected this week.

“We’re looking at daytime highs across southern Saskatchewan climbing  back into the 20 C to 25 C range for much of this week, and overnight lows  getting out of that frost range, at the very least for the next few days,” the forecaster explained.

He said the warmer spell is expected to last a few days, with the longer-range forecast calling for seasonably mild conditions.

“It doesn’t look like there’s  another big cold snap or a particularly early shot of snow coming right now,” Vrolijk said. “Just a nice warm week, and then trending back to slightly cooler, more  seasonable weather.”

Insurance claims are largely due to damaged shingles, roofs

Insurance claims are blowing in after Saturday’s storm.

Dusyk and Barlow Insurance Brokers say around 50 claims came in on Saturday while their office was still open. Rob Barlow, vice president of sales and administration, said he expects that number to rise this week to around 100 to 150 claims, but said it’s nowhere near as many claims as some previous storms have generated.

“We’ve seen way, way more from other storms, and this is not the worst storm we’ve seen by a long shot, even just in the last couple of years, but certainly it  was a significant windstorm,” Barlow said.

He explained that the majority of the claims filed so far are related to exterior damage to houses, particularly roofs.

“Shingles was probably the biggest one we had,” he said. “We had a few claims where fences or sheds were maybe blown over and taken off its foundation, but for the most part it would be shingle claims, loss of shingles, or shingles lifting off the roof.”

Whether or not those claims will result in a payment depends on the damage each person is dealing with.

“With windstorms, a lot of the claims we’ve been getting may turn out to be not worth claiming. You know, just a few shingles missing from a roof or a piece of fence blown over,” Barlow said

“Folks may opt to put a claim in and then may end up pulling it later because the damage is less than their deductible, or less than their deductible plus what they’ll lose in discounts… but some folks will still put those in just to just to see what the damage might be.”