Storms across southeastern Sask. drop tennis ball-sized hail

Severe storms across parts of southeastern Saskatchewan produced swift winds, massive hail and large amounts of rain Wednesday evening.

Environment Canada issued a tornado warning late Wednesday afternoon near Francis, roughly 65 kilometres southeast of Regina.

No tornadoes touched down, but Environment Canada meteorologist Kyle McAulay said there were plenty of reports of formidable-looking clouds.

“We did have a report of a rotating wall cloud, and wall clouds do tend to produce tornadoes,” he said.

Hail the size of tennis balls landed in the Nut Mountain area. Environment Canada said 64 millimetres of rain fell by 9 a.m., while golf ball-sized hail was reported in Garrick along with quarter-sized hail in Lumsden and Grand Coulee.

The most amount of rain fell in the Windhorst area. Up to 91 mm, more than 3 1/2 inches, fell in a 24-hour period there.

For wind, the fastest peak gusts were reported in Broadview, where wind speeds reached 91 kilometres per hour.

Darren Schmidt lives north of Southey, more than 180 kilometres northwest of Broadview.

(Darren Schmidt/Submitted)

Wind gusts at his property forced him into his basement as trees bent nearly in half and rain found its way into his house through older windows.

“It was driving the rain through the older-style wooden windows,” he said. “We had some water in our basement, we had some trees that came down in the property — on top of a bin — and another old building, the roof came right off and was set down beside it.”

Schmidt figures up to 10 old trees on his property were split in half due to the intense wind.

Any progress at ongoing renovations on one of his buildings was wiped away as water penetrated the exposed wood.

Other people in the area had similar problems.

“There’s been several grain bins in the area,” he said. “It was flattening gardens and I guess some crops as well.

“My neighbours, they figure their wheat crop is done.”

After living through plenty of summer Saskatchewan storms, Schmidt can say without a doubt that he has never experienced anything like Wednesday night.

“I’ve never seen wind like that. It was like being hit with 100-pound pressure from a car wash,” Schmidt said.