Gust Storm Splits The City (6 Photos 1 Video)

A strong thunderstorm quickly rolled around the city of Regina and fully split on radar with not a drop of rain but very strong wind gusts. To the east it seemed to intensify and a brown plume of dust became visible from my position at the south lookout on Wascana Lake. Boaters were caught as the storm was not very visible and only a watch had been issued, kayakers eventually came off the lake and dragon boater were seen struggling to go out on the lake after the wind died down slightly. Video of this and timelapse is now in process..

Today's Outlook Map

A very locally powerful storm yesterday over the city of Lethbridge, Alberta caused wide spread damage last evening. This was a situation that was not especially shown in the forecast models so just to be safe we are issuing a rather large area with a slight risk of severe thunderstorms. If things pan out like they did yesterday, there could be a lone cell over south eastern Saskatchewan that will becoming damaging with extremely high wind gusts. For most of the area, any storms will be general rain with some lightning. 

In south east Manitoba and north west Ontario, a very different picture, with supercell thunderstorms wide spread with large hail, risk of devastating tornadoes and heavy rain moving towards the Great Lakes region. Luckily that area is very sparsely populated but there could be large swaths of downed trees as has happened in previous years. 

Absolutely Incredible Timelapse Today From Lethbridge

Credit to Cameron Prince for this.

Major Storm Damage In Lethbridge Today

Environment Canada reports that they recorded wind gusts over 130km/hr in Lethbridge, Alberta this evening. Shortly after 8pm reported began to flood timelines on Facebook and Twitter with damage photos all around the city. Media and others had earlier called on forecasters and storm spotters to stop scaring people with warnings of possible severe weather and warnings and reports were as a result much slower and less specific. More on this tomorrow as another round of the usual summer storms continue into Saskatchewan and Manitoba.





Here is a collection of storm damage photos on twitter and CTV Lethbridge has a large collection of photos as well. Also a group on Facebook called Alberta Storm Chasers always has updated information on storms in that province.

That's WILD!!! RT @AZTECMASONRY: @CTVLethbridge crazy weather blew this trailer right over!! pic.twitter.com/jsfReKSgkX #Lethbridge #yql
— CTV Lethbridge (@CTVLethbridge) July 18, 2013

RT @lethtraffic: “@cher_herd: Centerline RV right beside my parents house. #yql #lethbridge @GlobalLeth @lethnews pic.twitter.com/a2MTlj25PI”
— Lethbridge News (@lethnews) July 18, 2013

tornado in lethbridge did some serious damage #byeroof #neighbour #yql #lethbridge #tornado pic.twitter.com/TG5X3fE5hv
— melissa (@melshep) July 18, 2013

Lethbridge "tornado", I'm calling it, destroyed my backyard play set #yql #scary #verysadforamelia pic.twitter.com/bmESTBj2Ij
— Andy Tyslau (@AndyTyslau) July 18, 2013

Thunderstorms Today Around Regina

Finally caught a lightning bolt! Huge storm to see from Douglas Park after I got off work, a bit late to the party but glad I jumped on the bike in time. There was a large number of people watching the storm on top of the hill. This footage is from between 5 and 6pm. The video is sped up 10x (quickly edited due to time constraints) and shows how volatile this system was today with dangerous looking areas in all directions but not a drop of rain and only a few strong wind gusts.