Extreme weather features in Saskatchewan’s top news stories of 2024

It’s been a wild weather year in Saskatchewan, and readers embraced the stories we wrote about it.

Here’s a recap of some of the major weather events our news teams covered across the province in 2024:

Snow drifts on residential streets in Saskatoon were deeper than some snowblowers could handle in March 2024. (Brent Bosker/650 CKOM)

March snowstorm brings out the best in people

It might have been early spring but meteorolgists were calling it a major winter storm.

The storm in early March dumped around 40 cm of snow in Saskatoon as well as around 25 cm of snow in Regina.

The huge dump of snow brought out the best in people, with a number of neighbours pitching in to help clear driveways and sidewalks.

David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, likened the snowfall amounts to the 2007 blizzard that stalled the province.

Diane Anderson’s driveway in Saskatoon after her neighbours helped clear it following the storm. (Diane Anderson/Submitted)

A twister touches down in the Clarkboro Ferry area at the end of June 2024. (Michele Cozart/Facebook)

Tornadoes and hail batter wide area of province

A crazy day at the end of June brought a dozen tornado warnings, with five twisters touching down in the province, as well as huge hailstones.

The tornadoes touched down in Gravelbourg, Radisson, Aberdeen, Meadow Lake, and the RM of Bayne near Bruno.

Carrot River near Nipawin was also hit hard, and mayor Roman Charko said a roof was blown off of a restaurant in town. Bins were tipped over, and a tower fell at a local fertilizer plant.

The most harrowing report was from a local campground, where Charko said a camper was flipped upside down.

“The guy was in it sleeping when it happened,” said Charko. “Maybe bruised up a bit, but he’s OK.”

Buildings in Gravelbourg had significant damage, with a roof partially torn off one that landed on vehicles parked nearby.

Homes were also ruined, and fence posts were blown out of the ground.

“Some of the siding on their house got completely destroyed. The windows smashed their fence. It’s like Swiss cheese… There’s holes,” Gravelbourg resident Mark Yim said.

Hail also rained down on southern Saskatchewan in the storm, ranging from quarter and toonie size up to 2 1/2 inches — larger than a golf ball — in Estevan.

A tornado also made an unusual late-season appearance in the province in mid-September.

Dave Carlsen, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the twister, which was spotted northeast of Langbank, roughly 40 minutes southwest of Moosomin, was “pretty weird”.

“Usually our tornado season is from the tail-end of May to about mid-August. Sometimes we get them into late August. I can think of the Whitewood tornado back in the late ‘90s,” he said.

There were reports of hail larger than golf balls falling to the ground in Estevan on June 23, 2024. (Allan Scott/submitted)

Debris from the roof of the barn lies in a tangle of timbers in a farmyard 95 kilometres south of Regina in late August. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

Historic 120-year-old barn loses roof in ‘crazy’ wind

Pangham resident Christine Calderbank felt like she was living out a scene from the The Wizard of Oz when a wild wind storm blew the roof off her barn in late August.

“I couldn’t believe it. It was just crazy,” she said. “It was bizarre.”

Calderbank said she heard a large crunch while she and her partner Cam Griffin ran around closing up the house to protect it from the high winds.

She was left with a tangle of lumber strewn across her yard, with only the base of the 120-year-old barn left standing.

“The whole roof was gone – not just part of the roof, but the whole roof,” Calderbank said. “That was so odd. That was so crazy.”

Part of the roof was tossed over the tree line, landing in a nearby wheat field. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

Flooding at Estevan’s historic Orpheum Theatre in August. (Jocelyn Dougherty/Submitted)

Flooding damages 110-year-old theatre in Estevan

Jocelyn Dougherty, a co-owner of Estevan’s historic Orpheum Theatre, was left with a big cleanup job after the 110-tear-old building had to close after it flooded in late August.

“It’s very exhausting,” Dougherty said.

On August 21, Dougherty said heavy rains filled a hole dug for construction in front of the building on 4th Street. The City of Estevan was undergoing renovations aimed to revitalize the downtown, she said.

The hole was around 18 feet deep and 30 feet wide, according to Dougherty.

“This rain filled it up,” she said. “It was like an Olympic sized swimming pool right in front of all the businesses.”

Some of that water leaked into the theatre’s basement bathrooms, some office spaces, and into the auditoriums.

Construction on 4th Street in front the of the Orpheum Theatre in Estevan before the flooding. (Jocelyn Dougherty/Submitted)

A spectacular show of northern lights was on display in early October in Saskatoon.(Shaden Rislan Bani Yaseen/Submitted)

Rare red aurora borealis lights up Sasaktoon skies

Saskatoon photographer Dr. Shaden Rislan Bani Yaseen captured a specutacular show of northern lights on film in early October.

Yaseen said she was ecstatic to capture rare red aurora borealis colours.

“The red auroras are particularly special, appearing when solar particles interact with oxygen at high altitudes, resulting in a striking and extraordinary display,” Yaseen said.

“This rarity makes these images even more significant, capturing moments that few are fortunate enough to witness.”

Rare red aurora shining brightly in the skies over Saskatoon. (Shaden Rislan Bani Yaseen/Submitted)

Snow blankets a parking lot in Saskatoon on Nov. 24, 2024. Resident Charlene Gibson said the lot was cleared before the weekend storm. (Charlene Gibson/submitted)

Back-to-back storms bring clean-up challenges

Two snowstorms in a week created challenges for the City of Saskatoon in late November.

Around 25 centimeters of snow fell in the city just days after a storm a few days earlier that dumped 17 centimeters.

Regina fared slightly better, but still saw a total of around 25 to 30 centimeters of snow fall in the same storm systems.

Rose Carlsen, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said it is not uncommon for the province to see two storms in the same week.