Supercell Sunset and Lightning Strikes!

July 19, 2016

Regina, Saskatchewan



Between 8pm and 10pm I caught this incredible display of Saskatchewan's skies. A tornadic supercell to the north provided incredible sunset shots from near the RCMP Heritage Centre. Later, dry cg lightning strikes as seen from the south side of Wascana Lake.

Continuous Lightning 3am July 19, 2016

Just after the near zero visibility downpour, I caught some clips of continuous lightning flashes over downtown Regina after 3am. It was severe warned for about an hour but only produced the heavy rain for a few minutes, no hail or much wind. More of the same today and tonight!?

Southern Alberta! Be Prepared Tonight... #Supercells #Tornadoes #abstorm

The BIG storms are back today! Great heat energy combined with several days of seeding rains and a strong jet stream will fire off some huge storms in southern Alberta late in the day and run east overnight, maintaining power. Potential for very large hail and long track tornadoes exists but for the most part, it will be hot and sunny all day for most areas. We don't expect storms to "break the cap" until late in the day or maybe early evening but when they do, it will get vicious! Overnight, nocturnals will grow and cruise east into Saskatchewan setting up an even more powerful set up on Tuesday. Tuesday night into Wednesday the strongest of this system will show its teeth over eastern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. This is a system to take very seriously. Charge you devices and set your weather radio to ALERT. Here is the current risk map:

Regina North Storm Timelapse 3:39 to 4:11pm

Overnight and Saturday Morning Risk Map

Here is an updated risk map for overnight and into Saturday morning. Next update at 7am. Strong thunderstorms overnight will increase in scale and intensity by morning. Large hail, strong winds and risk of a tornado for south east Saskatchewan and south west Manitoba. Saturday evening, storms will become long track supercells with significant tornadoes and up to baseball size hail.

Moderate to High Risk Saturday and Sunday #MBSTORM #SKSTORM

Saturday and Sunday looks like it will be a moderate to high risk for severe weather in south east Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Baseball size hail with long lived supercells, significant tornadoes, dangerous lightning and damaging winds. Begin your tornado precautions NOW if in these areas, Yorkton south through Regina into Montana, east to the Red River Valley and all of south west Manitoba. Make your plans now and stay safe, monitor weather alerts closely and with full attention, charge weather radios, cell phones, and stock candles and food.
A detailed map will be outlined later tonight as models come in line with the forecast.
Here is the Saturday 6pm NAM Supercell Composite:

Sunday's GFS shows the Supercell Composite Index with soundings at 69.1 (translating to a PDS Tornado, "Particularly Dangerous Situation) just south of the Saskatchewan/Manitoba/North Dakota border intersection:

Tornado #5 of 2016 Confirmed

Video of Saskatchewan's 5th confirmed tornado of 2016 near Estevan yesterday July 7.