Saturday's Storm, Was It A Tornado?

Environment Canada has provided more details on the storm that ripped through parts of the Pembina and Red River Valley Saturday night.

The storm dropped heavy rain, while winds were strong enough to uproot trees, topple hydro poles and rip apart some structures. Several eyewitnesses shared video of a large dust storm crossing Highway 3 near Winkler Bible Camp, and a semi was blown over just north of the Highway 14 junction of Highway 3. Meanwhile, east of the Red River, the old Niverville arena lost part of its roof in the storm, causing some to question whether, in fact, it was a tornado that hit their community and areas further west.

"Based on information I have right now, we don't have any visual or radar evidence to suggest this was actually a tornado," says Natalie Hasell with Environment Canada. "Strong straight-line winds looks to be much more the culprit."

Read More - Brief But Powerful Thunderstorms Hit Pembina Valley

Hasell explains there was a low pressure system early Saturday morning in Saskatchewan, and associated to it, there was a frontal structure, which moved across to reach southern Manitoba shortly after noon. There were storms on the cold front associated to that low, and Hasell says cold fronts tend to be powerful triggers for thunderstorms.

"So not entirely surprising," she says.

According to Hasell, 90 kilometres per hour is the threshold for the beginning of severe winds. She notes at least seven locations had wind gusts that exceeded that mark. Those locations were observed by either Environment and Climate Change Canada or Manitoba Agriculture. This included:

Menisino 111
St. Pierre 107
Rosa 104
Emerson 104
Snowflake 102
Somerset 96
Altona 96

"Ninety kilometres per hour, that's when we start to see damage typically," says Hasell.

Hasell reminds the public that it does not take a tornado for there to be wind damage. She notes strong, straight-line winds come out of a different part of the storm and can be just as powerful as some tornadoes.

"Because they travel away from the storm, the storm kind of pushes them out, you can actually get more widespread damage than you would in the case of a tornado," explains Hasell. "So that looks like the more likely scenario for the storms we saw on Saturday."

Read More - Thunder, Lightning, Wind... And Some Rain - Rainwatchers June 5th/6th

Meanwhile, Hasell says there could be more wild weather to come, noting there is a chance of precipitation, with possible thunderstorms in the forecast for several days this week including Tuesday, Tuesday night and Wednesday.