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It was quite the welcome back to Saskatchewan for a couple from British Columbia, after Saskatoon was hit with a major thunderstorm on Friday night.
The storm rolled through the city with heavy rain, high winds, bolts of lightning and loud thunder.
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So loud that Michele Waldbillig thought a car exploded.
“The thunder and lightning was so bad it was like an explosion in the sky,” she said. “The whole sky lit up, and I thought something like a car blew up.”
It wasn’t a car exploding, unfortunately it was the sound of a tree falling on her truck.
The tree on Michele Waldbillig’s truck, with only the truck’s headlight visible. (Michelle Waldbillig Submitted)
“My husband came running after me and said ‘our truck is hit’,” said Waldbillig. “Our truck was gone, there was no truck left, the tree was so big.”
Waldbillig was shocked to see that the tree basically covered the entire truck, but she also has the best ‘I told you so’ line out of the experience.
The tree that fell on Michele Waldbillig’s truck. (Michelle Waldbillig Submitted)
“I was talking to the neighbour two days ago and I said ‘I’m from B.C. and we have big trees and you have to keep an eye on these trees’,” she said.
“My husband says ‘Oh, you’re over-exaggerating, are you kidding?’ so when he came running in the room this morning .. I said ‘Oh I guess I wasn’t over exaggerating’.”
Waldbillig’s truck has dents on the roof, is covered in scratches, the truck bed has shifted and the newly replaced windshield is smashed.
Cracked windshield on Michele Waldbillig’s truck after a tree fell on it. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)
Now begins a long process for Waldbillig. What was supposed to be a fun weekend getaway with friends has turned into an extended stay dealing with insurance and repairs.
“We’ll check in and find out through City Hall what we do because the tree’s rotten,” she said.
The rotten trunk of the tree that fell on Michele Waldbillig’s truck. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)
“So hopefully they’re going to cover it, and then they’re going to have to send it to SGI because I’m not driving through the Rocky Mountains until it’s looked at.”
Waldbillig is originally from Saskatoon but moved to British Columbia over 50 years ago. She and her husband return to the city of bridges every summer to visit friends.
The plan this year was to head to Regina to watch the Roughriders game and when the tree came down, she thought their plans were going up in smoke.
But the group decided to still head to Regina to cheer on the Green and White.
“We’re going to the game, we bought tickets, that’s the reason we came out here,” said Waldbillig.
“My girlfriend just went through breast cancer, so we were going to pick her up, take her home and go to the game.”
Waldbillig did admit she’ll be cheering for both sides as the Roughriders line up against the B.C. Lions but said she’s excited nonetheless.
A funnel cloud spotted near Vibank on June 19, 2025. (Submitted)
Rainy days ahead
You can expect stormy weather ahead of Canada Day.
Environment Canada meteorologist Eric Dykes said on Saturday that southern Saskatchewan will have scattered showers and thunderstorms this weekend, with a chance of funnel clouds.
Shortly after talking with Dykes, Environment Canada released a special weather statement for potential funnel cloud development stretching across Saskatchewan and spanning Meadow Lake to down past Davidson.
The storms expected for southern parts of the province will be, “hit and miss” according to Dykes.
Not every community will be impacted, but Riders fans heading to Regina’s Mosaic Stadium should come prepared.
“You’d be wise to bring a rain jacket just in case,” Dykes said.
Despite the potential for stormy skies, Dykes said this weekend’s weather won’t be nearly as severe as what Regina and surrounding areas experienced on Thursday.
“Thursday was a different beast in the sense that we had a lot more moisture over southeastern Saskatchewan, a little bit less so today, and that’s going to help to negate the severe threat,” Dykes said.
With storms raging across the province these last couple of weeks – even developing tornadoes in some cases – it might seem like Saskatchewan is having a bad stretch of weather.
But, Dykes said thus far, this year isn’t anything remarkable.
“It’s kind of where it should be for this time of year. There’s nothing too abnormal with the amount of really severe storms that we’ve been seeing across the province,” Dykes said, adding that people might be more aware of bad weather because of social media.
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, though, with sunny, warm weather expected for the week ahead, making for a “beautiful Canada Day” according to Dykes.
— with files from Marija Robinson
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