Environment Canada lifts tornado warning for areas of southeast Sask.

Environment Canada has lifted the tornado warning it issued for the Moosomin area Wednesday.

Just seconds after a Saskatchewan Alert test had cellphones, radios and TVs squawking, another alert was issued about the storm.

Before the warning was lifted, Environment Canada meteorologist Dave Carlsen said radar showed “signatures of a potential tornado” that was just north of the Trans-Canada Highway.

“There have been no reports of any tornado yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if there were a tornado with this storm,” Carlsen said. “In addition to that, though, radar is showing very large hail likely with this thunderstorm, maybe up to baseball-sized hail.”

Carlsen said Environment Canada occasionally sees landspout tornadoes this early in the year – they’re weaker storms under growing thunderstorms, he said – but this was something different. It produced the first tornado warning of 2023.

“This one is coming out of a supercell thunderstorm, which is a big thunderstorm that’s rotating and producing all sorts of bad weather, including damaging straight-line winds and large hail,” Carlsen said.

“In terms of how early this one is in the year, we usually don’t see something like this until maybe the beginning of June. It’s early. It’s not unheard of, but it’s early.”

The tornado warning followed severe thunderstorm warnings and watches that were issued earlier Wednesday.

Environment Canada ended the warnings just before 2:30 p.m. The watches remained in effect for areas around Grenfell, Yorkton, Melville and Esterhazy.

“We can probably expect a few more thunderstorms maybe in southeastern Saskatchewan for the balance of the day, but it looks like the main threat is now passing into Manitoba,” Carlsen said.

More information is available on the Environment Canada alerts page.