Environment Canada expects smoke in Regina on Saturday, with Saskatoon also likely to see hazy skies as well. (980 CJME file photo)

Wildfire smoke to roll into southern Sask., no tornadoes reported in ‘powerful storm’

By Abby Zieverink Jul 4, 2025 | 12:26 PM

Smoky skies are expected to roll into southern Saskatchewan this weekend.

Environment Canada is calling for smoke in Regina on Saturday. While Saskatoon is not calling for smoke as of Friday morning, Meteorologist Dan Fulton said it’s very likely the sky will be hazy in the bridge city too.

“It’s almost like when you’re sitting around a campfire, sometimes it’s very hard to tell where the smoke is, but it is a pretty strong possibility Saskatoon will get it too,” he said.

He said it will impact the air quality, but it’s too early to say just how bad it will be.

“It’s really hard to predict the fire behaviour and things like that, but it’s definitely going to be a bit smoky this weekend,” he said.

Fulton explained the smoke is making its way south due to some shifting winds.

“A few days ago, there was an awful lot of lightning in central and northern Saskatchewan, and that actually ignited quite a few more wildfires,” he said.

“As the weather progresses, we’re expecting the wind to shift to the north in southern Saskatchewan, and that’s going to blow the smoke from those wildfires down over the south.”

No tornadoes touched down on Thursday

No tornadoes were spotted after a “powerful storm” in southeastern Saskatchewan Thursday afternoon.

Fulton said a trough of low pressure, on top of hot and humid conditions, produced a thunderstorm that was rotating rather quickly in the southeastern corner of the province.

“These severe thunderstorms, they rotate. So if you see it, it will look like it’s twirling,” Fulton explained.

“If you get a good vantage point, you can actually see the whole storm turning in the air; that’s kind of a signature of a severe thunderstorm.”

Time lapse of the rotation associated with this tornado warned supercell just north of Redvers SK — 555p CST 655p CDT#ShareYourWeather #MBStorm #SKStorm pic.twitter.com/q1XlCV4YnK

— Ryan Voutilainen 🇨🇦🇫🇮 (@RyanVoutilainen) July 3, 2025

It prompted Environment Canada to issue some tornado warnings, based on the possibility that a tornado could form.

“There were storm chasers on it, and it tried—but it never did—actually put down a tornado, which is probably a good thing anyway,” he said.

Fulton said as the storm moved into Manitoba throughout the night, wind gusts of 115 km/h were reported. He said it was possible strong winds like that were also spotted in southeast Saskatchewan.

“It wasn’t picked up by any of our stations. So we have no idea really what it was like there, but I’m sure it was very windy. It was a very powerful storm,” he said.

Fulton said there were also reports of ping-pong-ball-sized hail in southern Saskatchewan near Manor, which is around 50km west of the Manitoba border.