More tornadoes touch down in southwestern Manitoba
Pastor Dale Morgan
More tornadoes touch down in southwestern Manitoba*
Updated Sun. Jun. 24 2007 7:19 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
CANADA - Environment Canada is investigating reports that several more
tornados have wreaked havoc in Manitoba, while the town of Elie recovers
from an earlier twister.
Dan Kulak, a spokesperson from Environment Canada, told CTV Newsnet that
at least four, possibly five, tornadoes touched down in southwestern
Manitoba.
Tornadoes were reported Saturday evening near Pipestone, Minto, the
Canupawakpa First Nation and an area between Hartney and Delorain.
Bev Flannery and her husband, who own a farm in Pipestone, received a
call from their neighbour urging them to hurry home.
When they arrived, they saw more than 40 years of work destroyed -- the
twister had demolished their barn.
"Why couldn't it have gone out to the pasture or somewhere?" Flannery
told CTV Winnipeg. "You just wonder, why us?"
But the couple were thankful their home, just a stone's throw away from
the barn, was left intact.
Kulak said two of the tornados whipped through one area at the same time.
"A couple were very close together, almost simultaneous near a First
Nations' community in southwestern Manitoba. There were another series
of tornados forming in the southwestern part or the province," Kulak
said on Sunday from Edmonton.
"It's been another wild night on the Prairies!"
Witnesses said one of the twisters was the width of a football field
with winds of up to 400 kilometres per hour.
There were no deaths or injuries but the Dakota-Ojibwa police service
lost its roof and the fire station and some homes on the Canupawakpa
First Nation are damaged.
The same system also prompted weather warnings throughout Saskatchewan.
"Right now, as far as damage actually goes, they were no where as bad as
what happened in Elie, but certainly an outbreak of five tornadoes is a
very significant weather event," Kulak said.
A tornado that obliterated at least four homes in Elie, Man., on Friday
has been classified as an F4 -- one of the most violent twisters possible.
Environment Canada meteorologists believe the twister that hit Elie, a
community west of Winnipeg, had wind speeds of up to 417 kilometres per
hour.
In addition to the destroyed homes in Elie a few trucks were tossed into
fields and powerful winds caused a transport truck to roll over into a
ditch on the Trans Canada Highway.
Rescuers used search dogs to look for victims, but everyone was
accounted for and there were no reports of injuries, according to reports.
Manitoba Premier Gary Doer toured the town on Saturday and promised
financial support.
Kulak explained there are three weather conditions required to prompt
the development of a tornado.
* A weather condition known as "instability" which causes the warm
air to rise and the cool air to sink.
* A catalyst to set off the conditions such as a cold air front or
warming from the sun
* A condition called "windsheer" -- wind speeds and direction that
change depending on height causing a "twisting of clouds" that can then
become a tornado
Kulak said late June and July is peak tornado season in Canada.
"Typically storms will move from the West to the East and it's a good
time to keep an eye on the sky and know what you're going to do if a
tornado threatens and heads to your area."
With a report by CTV Winnipeg's Stacey Ashley and files from The
Canadian Press