Brief Storm Possible To Graze Regina By Sundown

A heavy rain and intense lightning storm hit the city of Saskatoon a few hours ago and is slowly moving towards Regina at this time. If it hold together it may just catch the north end, spread out or nothing at all. Currently this small but powerful cell looks like a mini gust front with high tops, suggesting it will keep its strength by sundown near Regina where it should quickly dissipate.

Here is a look at the echo tops screen grab:

And today's outlook map:

Temporary Site Crash / Front Page News / Today's Risk Map

Today our little blog Canadian Prairie Storms made it to the front page of the Leader Post and soon after became unavailable until late this afternoon as restoration methods had to be implemented. As a result a new page was created on Facebook as a backup, this page will be maintained as time permits but feel free to give it a like and fill it with comments and reports. 

In today's weather news, Calgary has been issued a severe thunderstorm warning and tornado watch with many areas along the southern Alberta foothills in the risk zone. This activity is expected to continue all week until storms move into Saskatchewan next Sunday according to long term models. We will update as storms develop and models change. Here is today's outlook map:

Updated Risk Map - Very Slim Chance Of Storms

Outlook For Sunday

Large supercell thunderstorms will begin early in the day in south central Saskatchewan and gain strength with day time heating and then move towards south east Saskatchewan and enter south west Manitoba by evening.

Today's Outlook Map / Week In Review

Here is today's severe weather outlook risk map:

It has been a very unexpectedly busy past three days and I feel it is time to take a look back at what happened this week. Forecast models really dipped in energy potential on Wednesday which is why the forecasters were overly excited on Monday and fairly unconcerned with the rest of the week. Let's start with this:

'Oklahoma-style' t-storms for SK today. Likely will be the most violent storms in N. America, possibly the world #skstorm
— Chris Scott (@ChrisScottWx) July 15, 2013

The Weather Network's Chief Meteorologist Chris Scott started a media frenzy and resulting backlash on social media when nothing hit the city of Regina. 

I am HOWLING RT @mrcurrentevents: Never forget the storm of July 15 2013. We WILL rebuild.. #skstorm #sask #yxe pic.twitter.com/sqgrYm7App
— UsedRegina (@usedregina) July 15, 2013

Meanwhile, just south of the city between 6 and 8 tornado touch downs were reported with golf ball size hail:

@SeanSchoferTVN @reedtimmerTVN @GlobalRegina @OwenParker4 #FunnelCloud near #Rouleau (July 15) #skstorm #skwx pic.twitter.com/oopshnAzN9
— Ryan Crouse (@ryancrouse1) July 19, 2013

We've mapped out Environment Canada's July 15 storm summary (yesterday's hail, heavy rain & tornado reports) for SK: pic.twitter.com/GPNoyNareV
— CBC Weather Centre (@CBCWeather) July 16, 2013

Here is a good link with more photos and details from Monday's severe weather outbreak:
Canada.com Saskatchewan Storm Summary
...with Here’s Environment Canada’s full breakdown of reports:

HEARNE ................... 3:30 PM ..... QUARTER SIZE HAIL
NEAR SOUTHEY ............. 3:30 PM ..... 50 MM RAIN
ROULEAU .................. 3:50 PM ..... GOLF BALL HAIL
SOUTHEY .................. 3:50 PM ..... LOONIE TO GOLF BALL HAIL
CUPAR .................... 4:10 PM ..... 55 MM RAIN, QUARTER HAIL
NEAR GRAY ................ 4:40 PM ..... RAIN-WRAPPED TORNADO
NEAR HAGUE ............... 4:50 PM ..... PROBABLE TORNADO
NEAR KRONAU .............. 4:55 PM ..... TORNADO
NEAR ROSTHERN ............ 5:00 PM ..... POSSIBLE TORNADO
SOUTHEAST OF REGINA ...... 6:00 PM ..... QUARTER SIZE HAIL
WEST OF YORKTON .......... 6:05 PM ..... TORNADO
SOUTHWEST OF YORKTON ..... 6:45 PM ..... TORNADO
NORTHWEST OF MILESTONE ... 7:00 PM ..... GOLF BALL HAIL
NEAR ITUNA ............... 7:05 PM ..... GOLF BALL HAIL
NORTH OF HUMBOLDT ........ 7:20 PM ..... PROBABLE TORNADO
PANGMAN .................. 7:50 PM ..... QUARTER SIZE HAIL

The next morning, ironically a storm free day for us, I ran into the Dominator 3 as I got my coffee at Starbucks:

Then on Wednesday with very little or no attention, a watch was issued for the Lethbridge, Alberta area and around 7pm they suddenly got slammed with 130km/hr winds. Possible the most incredible timelapse footage of any storm this year was shot by Cameron Prince on his first try at storm videos!
This same system then grazed the city of Regina on Thursday with similar but much weaker effects. Joshua Zorn was able to film the core as it went over Pilot Butte just east of Regina. This is also some really great footage as the storm was a dry gust front:

 ...and here is what I saw from Wascana Lake as you can faintly see the ground disturbance to the east: Then yesterday, the city of Regina got a direct hit between 2 and 3pm with tons of hail and strong winds and embedded lightning that took many trees and branches down throughout the city.. ..some enjoyed in more than others lol

Lots of hail in Regina. pic.twitter.com/0uJGRXynC0
— Scott Wilson (@scottwilson1973) July 19, 2013

#skstorm #YQR #hail pic.twitter.com/swFQLOeDrO
— Mare (@mareofthesea) July 19, 2013

Cleaning up after the hail. #skstorm pic.twitter.com/DznkF3EQEc
— Trina Crawford (@TCrawford2011) July 19, 2013

You can see the footage I have posted so far at the bottom of this page if you click "Older Posts". I'm going to work on the full version video later today after coffee and maybe some kayaking..