High risk of storms as Sask. summer heats up

Strong storms bypassed Saskatoon and Regina, but hammered other parts of the province Monday.

Severe thunderstorms cut through the sweltering heat, sending pea-sized hail and heavy rains to the ground in areas around Davidson and Prince Albert.

A storm cell east of Meadow Lake prompted tornado warnings in the region, which were made more urgent after a low funnel cloud was spotted near Green Lake.

John-Paul Cragg, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the agency didn’t receive any reports of the funnel cloud touching down.

“It was pretty close to the ground,” Cragg said, noting they could receive reports of storm damage throughout Tuesday.

After the funnel cloud was sighted, People living east of the storm were told to take cover due to a potentially “life-threatening situation.”

Cragg said the funnel cloud spotting confirmed the rotation weather watchers were seeing on radar, but it was still difficult to determine how the severity of the storm.

“Without some kind of damage indicator … it’s very hard to tell how strong it could be,” he said.

Nearly jumped off my deck after this snap of thunder #skstorm pic.twitter.com/DVaIsWyPRF

— Brent Bosker (@brentbosker) July 4, 2017

The storms didn’t completely outdo the hot weather, as record highs were reached in southern Saskatchewan.

Cragg said Weyburn hit 34.2 C, breaking a 100-year-old record of 31.9 C.

The record broken in Estevan was even older – a mark of 32.2 C set in 1900. The southeastern city hit 32.5 C Monday afternoon.

Saskatoon and Regina came close, but didn’t set new highs: Saskatoon reached 31. 9 C, falling short of the 32.8 C record set in 1924, and Regina reached 32.4 C, just under the 1886 record of 33.9 C.