It’s getting to that time of year again.
Storm season is just about upon us. The prairies have seen its first tornado of the year near Calgary Alberta. A spectacular EF0 land spout.
I get a few absolutely awe inspiring chases in a season. I travel across the Canadian prairies, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Last year the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border on July 27th 2015 was one of those epic days.
My day started early. I met up with my chase partner for the day Ryan Wunch in Leader at 7 am. We needed to get to Oxbow Sk before 2 pm when storms were predicted to start going up. It was a 6 hour drive to our destination in the Rolling Thunder.
We arrived at the Alameda Junction West of Oxbow shortly after 1 pm. The parking lot at the Esso station was already filling up with those who were chasing for the day. So many people from all over came out for the event. There were people from the US, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan.
As usual storms didn’t fire in the time originally predicted. So we passed the hours checking Radar, speaking with news stations keeping them updated, visiting with fellow chasers and talking with the public who stopped in to take pictures and talk about what was coming.
At 5:45 pm the storms started to fire. We were treated with a very cool rolling rotating cloud above our heads at 6 pm. A sign it was go time!
We blasted East on Hwy 18 with the Yorkton Storm Hunter Team and Kyle Fowler our chase convoy for the night. You can check out the highlight video from me on youtube or the live stream from the lead car from Ryan Crouse (Yorkton Storm Hunter) here on youtube.
Near Gainsbourough Sk the sky went a bright teal and we watched multiple wall clouds and funnels form. This was around 7:20 pm
Everywhere we looked there was rotation, and funnels. It was hard to pick an area to chase. We chose to go North on Hwy 856 around 8 pm.
At around 8:30 Pm reports of a large wedge tornado that was later determined to be an EF2 touched down just north of us. We were a few minuets behind so did not have a great visual of the tornado itself. We came upon the damage path shortly after it passed through.
damage path (Black circle) and the circulating arrows show the area of rotation (Tornado) (orange circle)
This farm sustained heavy damage. Luckily the resident were not home at the time and no injuries were reported. The house remained intact other than some missing shingles. The barn was severely damaged. It was at this farm that an shaken up dog came tottering down the road. Yorkton Storm Hunter team took the dog with them in hopes of locating its owners. North of the farm there was a bridge on the road. This is where the tornado crossed the road. Asphalt was ripped clean from the road. The road was not passible. Power lines were down. We waited on scene and stopped traffic until emergency services that Ryan Crouse contacted arrived on scene, and Katie with the Yorkton team found people who knew the owners of the dog. They returned him safely back to his owners. We had a man stop while we were waiting. He lived up the road. His whole yard was hit. He owned a hauling business and all his trucks were destroyed. He escaped in one of his trucks just as the tornado came barrelling down.
As storm chasers and spotters we have a moral obligation to help those affected by a storm and ensure safety of the public. At a time when we come across a damage path from a storm the chase is off until we ensure no one is injured and no one is needing medical attention. We also stay on scene until proper authorities have arrived if there are downed power lines across a road that could be a danger to the public. We are often those who are first on scene. It’s why I carry a large first aide bag equipped with almost everything. As chasers and spotters we never want to see populated areas hit. We never enjoy seeing the damage to property. It makes your heart sink.
After emergency services Arrived on scene we continued to follow the storm North towards Virden MB. The lightning was non-stop. We got into Virden close to midnight. There was localized flooding all over but the damage was minimal. At this point we called the chase. Again we met up with some fellow chasers at the gas station and talked awhile with The Weather Network group for awhile about what we had saw. The EF2 tornado was on the ground for approximately 3 hours. Amazing no one was injured. With so many eyes on the ground despite bad cell service people in the area received up to the minuet information and kept safe and sheltered.
On the drive home we noticed what looked like debris from the storm littering the highway. It took a minuet for us to realize that it wasn’t debris but frogs…..thousands of them jumping all over the highway. It was quite the site to see. I wish I would have stopped to take a photo of it but we were exhausted and still had a 7 1/2 hour trek home.
I arrived at home around 7:30 am on the 28th and caught an hour sleep before the phone started going off for morning after interviews for the news stations. It was an amazing experience to see that storm up close, to be a part of it all.
News article from day after: ckom.com/article
I’m sure 2016 is going to bring many more of these experiences. I look forward to sharing it with you. Feel free to follow me on Twitter, twitter.com/JennyAndrew2 for live updates during the 2016 storm season.
