This past week, it was scorching heat mixed with high humidity that created large storms that brought with them hail. While the Watrous area escaped the June 25 event, places like Prince Albert and Kindersley were left picking up the pieces. From golfball- to baseball-sized hail, large amounts of lightning and loss of power, the storms moved through the west part of the province into north-central regions. In fact, the forecast was great enough to attract storm chasers from the United States to the province to try to catch a glimpse of potential tornadoes.
Those potential twisters arrived a day later June 26 when one hit around Swift Current and another by Moose Jaw. Storms wreaked havoc throughout the province including in the Watrous area where wind, lightning, rumbling thunder and some hail were present. Damage was done to several farmyards and other areas, and several places like Davidson saw a reported 40 mm of rain fall in a 30 minute span.
Prince Albert was left without power for over a day and other communities experienced power losses as well.
That was not all for the region as June 27 packed a powerful punch of wind. Winds up to 110 km/hr hammered parts of the province including Watrous. Downed trees, scattered bins and other items were strewn about as gusts slammed through the area.
The picture is from our front window of the oncoming storm that hit Watrous June 26. I have never seen such colours like the turquoise behind the cloud...the wind damage that hit Watrous June 27 had trees splitting/falling, a camper was overturned at the local Success RV dealership and other damage was reported. To check out pictures of that event head to www.facebook.com/thewatrousmanitou -- I posted a bunch on there.
