Environment Canada investigating sightings of tornadoes from last week’s storm

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) said they are working to figure out how many tornadoes touched down and how much damage they caused after several tornado sightings were reported last Wednesday in Manitoba.

“This takes some time and some investigation,” ECCC senior meteorologist Terri Lang said on Thursday, responding to what she said were multiple reports of tornado sightings last Wednesday in areas of the province.

According to ECCC, a storm entered Manitoba from Saskatchewan last Wednesday around 3:30 p.m., and was the probable cause of tornadoes that were reported, although Lang said before conducting an investigation they have no way of knowing how many formed and touched down.

“It’s really hard at first, because there are a lot of reports that come in and some are viewed from different angles, and sometimes it’s the same storm that will spit out more than one tornado, so you don’t know when one ended and the next one began,” Lang said.

“And often people report a funnel cloud as a tornado, but if there is no contact with the ground it’s not a tornado, so all of that has to be investigated.”

Lang said ECCC officials will spend the next few days travelling to where there were reports and sightings and piecing together the extent of the storm and its aftermath and will release more information after they complete their investigation.

“It takes a few days, people have to drive to those areas, look at the damage, look at the satellite imagery, and talk to people and then drive to the next spot.”

Lang added that seeing images at or near some communities including Swan Lake First Nation and Rapid City leaves little doubt that tornadoes did touch down in Manitoba last Wednesday.

The only known tornado damage that has been reported so far, according to Lang, was to the pow-wow grounds at the Swan Lake First Nation, and there were no injuries reported last Wednesday from the storm or from any tornadoes.

“On the Prairies, there are just so many more wide open spaces than dense areas so there is always a better chance that it’s the open areas that are going to get hit, and it looks like that’s what happened here,” she said.

The storm, according to ECCC, lasted approximately three hours and moved southeast for about 300 kilometres, from Binscarth to the Morden-Winkler area.

Tornado warnings were issued for the municipalities of Glenboro-South Cypress, North Cypress-Langford and Oakland-Wawanesa, the towns of Neepawa and Carberry, the Municipality of Lorne, the rural municipalities of Victoria and Stanley and for Winkler and Morden on last Wednesday.

According to ECCC, a combination of weather conditions are needed to produce tornadoes and Lang said last Wednesday’s weather in parts of Manitoba was ideal for tornadoes to form, as they typically form when there is warm moist air near the ground, with cooler dry air up higher, and wind shear, which is a change in wind speed and/or direction over a short distance.

Lang said the size of tornadoes can only be identified after an investigation is complete because she said investigators use physical damage to determine tornado size.

“It’s all based on damage they do, and if they don’t hit anything we can’t rate them,” she said.

And with the news of tornado sightings last Wednesday and images being shared online, Lang said Manitobans should always be aware of the possibility of tornadoes in summer, and know what to do if one is threatening them or their family’s safety.

“Tornadoes on the prairies in the summer are a normal thing,” she said “We didn’t get as many last year because it was hot, dry and smoky, but you should always be aware that they can happen, and people should know what to do when they strike, because no one should be trying to figure that out when it’s happening.

“If you see a tornado you need to get into a sturdy building, get to the lowest level that you possibly can, stay in the interior away from windows and doors, and put up as many walls as you can between yourself and the outside.

“Knowing what to do when there is a tornado can save your life, and it has saved lives.”

This story was originally published in The Winnipeg Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.