Tornado, wicked winds and massive hail bring 'absolute chaos' to southwest Manitoba

The skies lit upover southern Manitoba Thursday night as a lightning storm dropped hailthe size of golf balls and softballs, caused power outages and whipped up a tornado that touched down in the southwest corner of the province.

Environment Canada confirmed a tornado touched down near Waskada, 280 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg and just north of the U.S. border, in the evening. No damage was reported.

The twisterfollowed a series of tornado and severe weather warnings through southwestern Manitoba.

Nearly 100 km/h winds and huge hail swept across the south, knocking out power to thousands, downing trees and damaging property.

Elizabeth Ball works at the Pelican Lake Campground & Lounge, near Ninette and about 180 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, and watched the storm roar in at about 7 p.m.

"It was entirely white," Ball said. "Looked like a snowstorm in the middle of June."

Raw: Hail pounds Pelican Lake Campground

6 years ago

Duration 0:27

Massive chunks of hail poured down on the Pelican Lake Campground in Ninette, Man.

Baseball-sized hail bounced off the lounge windows and smashed cars in the parking lot, Ball said. It was so loud, it was hard to communicate clearly with people in the lounge, she said.

Windows on her truck and a co-worker's vehiclewere smashed in.

"Her whole back window was gone," Ball said. "It sounded like a war zone. It literally sounded like we were just in the middle of absolute chaos."

In Winnipeg, a massive boulevard tree split in two, and half of it came crashing down in front of Kristin Stoezel'shome in Wolseley.

"Just shocked," Stoezel said Friday morning while standing by the big sidewalk obstruction."It went around everything; it didn't hit cars or the house or anything, and it went around our tiny little oak tree."

Wild storm brings down massive tree in Wolseley

6 years ago

Duration 0:54

Wild storm brings down massive tree in Wolseley

Deanna Spencerwasn't so lucky.The gale-force winds flipped up part of her roof,and hail damaged the siding and broke the windows on the north side ofherhome in Belmont, Man., she said Friday morning.

"It was coming straight sideways," she said about the hail. "The whole ground was coated as if we had half a foot of snow."

Spencer was out riding horses near her home when the skies turned an incredible "slough-green colour" and she knew it was time to head in.

Wind and hail also tore off tree branches and the mirrors and lights on Spencer's trailer. Divots were left all over the grass in her yard after it was pelted by hail and buckets of rain.

About 18,000 Manitoba Hydro customers had their power knocked out bythe storm, including about 1,600in Winnipeg, Hydro spokesperson Bruce Owen said. Thousands were still in the dark on Thursday morning, althoughonly about 4,800 were still without power as of 11:30 a.m. CT as crews continued to repair damaged transmission lines.

• Manitoba Hydro outage reports

The Crown corporation received 20 emergency calls Thursday night in Winnipeg alone due to downed power lines, Owen said, the majority in the River Heights neighbourhood.

Outside the city,Killarney,Morden, Portage la Prairie and Selkirk were hit the hardest by outages, Owen said.

Environment Canada said hail as large as softballs was reported inNinette, while quarter-, toonie- andgolf ball-sizedhail fell in Swan Lake,WinklerandManitou, respectively.

BevPapegniessaid hail the size ofsoftballs and golf balls damaged vehicles in Ninette and left her van window smashed.

A tent set up for a fairin Ninette this weekend was pelted and damaged by the hail, she said.

Storm-chaser Dan Heinrichssaid he drove through a wall of hail the size of golf balls, which piled up on the highway near Darlingford.

"What's normally a paved road sounds like you're driving on a bumpy gravel road for all the hail that you're driving over, and of course it's all ice, so it's quite slippery," he said Friday morning.

"It was slow-going at times, near zero visibility and you've got your four-ways on so that someone else can see you when they come up behind you."

The largest rainfall amounts were in the Belmont area, 175 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, where 76 millimetres (aboutthree inches) fell in 30 minutes.

Late into the evening, wild cracks of lightning lit up Winnipeg, which got 42 mm of rain at The Forks.

The storm forced aseries of delays at the Blue Bombers' season-opener at Investors Group Field. Kickoff was at 7:35 p.m. CT but the game didn't end until until after 1 a.m. Friday due to delays.The delays made it the second-longest game in CFL history.

Wind gusts in the 87 km/h range were measured at theWinnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

Meanwhile, 100 km southwest of Winnipeg in Dearwood, 97 km/h wind gusts were charted.

The storms also battered southeastern Saskatchewan on Thursday.

Storm brings 'absolute chaos' to southwest Manitoba

6 years ago

Duration 1:59

The skies lit up over southern Manitoba Thursday night as a lightning storm dropped hail the size of golf balls and softballs, caused power outages and whipped up a tornado that touched down in the southwest corner of the province.

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