A major weather event on Thursday in Saskatchewan included thunderstorms, dust storms and wind gusts reaching up to 115 km/h.
Falling and flying debris damaged trees and structures, and power was still out in some areas as of Friday morning.
“I’m not surprised. I mean, at those wind speeds, you’re bordering on like, EF0 tornado-level winds,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Danielle Desjardins. The EF, or Enhanced Fujita, scale is used to rate tornadoes, and EF0 is at the low end.
High winds kept crews from repairing power lines in some areas, leaving many communities without power for long periods.
Radville, about 130 km south of Regina, was the windiest place in the province, with gusts reaching up to 115 km/h. It was among nine communities that had winds measured above 100 km/h, including Climax, Milestone, Coronach, Swift Current, Estevan, Yellow Grass, Val Marie and Shaunavon.
Radville town councillor Scott Biss said there’s damage in the town and surrounding area.
“[I saw a] couple trees down, shingles on multiple houses [lost], nothing too serious. I don’t think anybody got hurt,” he said.
WATCH | Here’s how strong winds whipped up dust on the Prairies:
Here’s how strong winds whipped up dust on the Prairies
A spring storm with high winds stirred up dirt in parts of southern Saskatchewan.
“But driving around the roads … you couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you. But yeah, I haven’t seen that kind of dust around here.”
The town and surrounding area also went without power for a few hours, and some people were still without it on Friday morning.
“We just had some guys south of town in the shop here today and they still don’t have power south of town. Supposed to get it this afternoon. I’m surprised we got power back,” Biss said.
Radville town councillor Scott Biss said he could still feel the wind as he was sitting in his truck on Friday. (Alex Kozroski/CBC)
“It’s still gusting to 70 right now here, like I’m sitting in my truck and it’s rocking my truck still,” he said.
The damage is nothing that can’t be fixed, he added.
“The roofer is going to be busy for the next year probably.”
Laura Stock, co-owner of Happy Little Hooves Pony and Donkey Sanctuary near Estevan, will also need repairs.
“We had a wind gust come through and it was one of the extreme ones and it basically picked up the sheeting off the roof of one of our shelters and removed it,” said
“That means repairs. Once this wind dies down, we’re going to have to cover the roof and actually look into raising some funds.”
Happy Little Hooves Pony and Donkey Sanctuary, which is host to many animals with health issues, was hit by high winds carrying dust. (Happy Little Hooves Pony and Donkey Sanctuary/Facebook)
The sanctuary is host to equines with special needs, and big concerns come with an asthmatic donkey in a dust storm.
“Wind like this picking up dust really affects our little ones that have respiratory issues,” said Stock. “We have to keep a really close eye on them and give them medicine should they start having breathing issues.”
CBC Radio listener Anne Lazurko sent in this photo on Friday morning of one of her cattle sheds on her farm near Weyburn, which was hit by high winds. (Submitted by Anne Lazurko)
Elle Grzeda, the owner of Elle’s Cafe in Regina, experienced the damage in person when a tree fell on the property.
‘We were upstairs because our power had gone out. So we were just kind of waiting … for the power to come back on and we looked out the window and we saw the tree coming down,” she said.
“Luckily it didn’t do too much damage. It took out some lines and everybody was safe. But yeah, it was quite a shock to us.”
Grzeda stayed positive.
“You gotta take what life throws at you. So I guess we’ll get this cleaned up and we’ll have a nice new patio soon,” she said.
Lots of people reached out after the café posted a video about it on social media.
“It was an overwhelming amount of responses from that video of people reaching out, asking if they could help. People trying to give us the numbers for tree companies and honestly just making sure we were OK and everything was gonna be OK here,” Grzeda said.
They were ready to open the patio for the season before the tree fell.
“I think we’re going to have a little bit of delay on that until we get this beautiful tree out of the way,” Grzeda said.
“I mean, it happened right in time for patio season. I guess this tree was just a little too impatient for it and wanted to get out here.”
Elle Cafe owner, Elle Grzeda, posing in front of the tree that fell on the patio of the cafe. (Laura Sciarpelletti/CBC)
Some of the precipitation came as snow north of the Yellowhead Highway, while the highest rainfall totals reached up to 32 millimetres. Looking ahead, Desjardins said the precipitation will calm, but the long weekend won’t be too comfortable.
“We are expecting precipitation to continue persisting through the day, but diminishing overnight into Saturday morning,” she said on Friday morning. “We could expect upwards of 40 to 50 mm in those higher northwest, central areas, Meadow Lake, North Battleford.”
She noted winds will remain strong Friday in the south, calming in the evening.
“We have another low-pressure system that we are looking at,” said Desjardins. “That will clip southeastern Saskatchewan later this weekend, beginning on Sunday through Monday. So the rest of the province will stay relatively dry, but the south and southeast look to have some more precipitation on its way.”
