High Risk Verified - Monday Expected to Be A Big Day

A high risk for severe thunderstorms was issued early Sunday morning for western Alberta with a chance of tornadoes and extremely large hail.

 

 By 5pm one tornado was confirmed and reports of tennis ball sized hail were included in multiple tornado warnings throughout the evening, from Rocky Mountain House to Drumheller, Alberta.

Brief tornado near Sunchild, AB 5:02pm #abstorm pic.twitter.com/DVeta5rAhE

— Craig Hilts (@CraigHilts71) July 9, 2017

This storm is a monster east of olds #abstorm pic.twitter.com/GTWU4tQE5x

— Attila The Fun (@jpmwd) July 10, 2017

Storm continue to maintain maximum strength late overnight and by 11:30pm cells began to quickly pop up in western Saskatchewan. Here is an image grab of echo tops radar and lightning at that time:

 
  

 A day 2 moderate risk was issues in the early afternoon and that is expected to be expanded by morning for most areas of southern Saskatchewan on Monday afternoon. Extremely large hail with damaging wind gusts and tornadoes. Link to PASPC Current Outlook



 Many storm chasers are committed to converge on the area, such as the world record holder for tornado intercepts Roger Hill and his Silver Lining tour company. Also world famous storm chaser, Reed Timmer tweeted this:

DISCUSSION: tornado threat increasing for west-central MN this Sunday evening. Read discussion here: https://t.co/H1ZvYdVHE5 @AccuWeatherPro pic.twitter.com/g3LCSuI6Ij

— Reed Timmer (@ReedTimmerAccu) July 9, 2017

We will continue to monitor this situation closely and posts will be frequent on our Facebook page.

Destructive Tornadic Storms - July 5, 2017

The day started off very early with morning convection just north of Regina which brought intense lightning and pea size hail to the area from 5:30am to 7am. I managed to snap a few photos and videos as it passed by.

This was as the sun rose at 5:30am looking north east from downtown Regina:

It actually began to gain strength at 6am when I started shooting this video from my deck:

After a couple hours and a report of pea size hail east of the city, it died out. Then we waited with great anticipation for what was to become the main event later in the afternoon. At 4:33pm clouds began to twirl and spin by, showing the incredible instability that was in the atmosphere mixing with extremely high CAPEs (Convective Available Potential Energy). This video was shot off my back deck (time-lapse 32x speed), facing south east:

Echo Tops radar began to show the progression of the birth of tornadic supercells at 5:50pm from Dauphin, Manitoba to Carlyle, Saskatchewan:

Within only a few minutes, what was only a few blips on radar suddenly became severe warned thunderstorms. Image from 6:20pm:

The first of many tornado warnings was issued near the radar site of Foxwarren, Manitoba:

"8:18 PM CDT Wednesday 05 July 2017

Tornado warning in effect for: Prairie View Mun. incl. Bird Tail Creek Res. R.M. of Yellowhead incl. Shoal Lake and Elphinstone Rossburn Mun. incl. Waywayseecappo Res.

.."

Wow, check out the radar signature on this thing using Tilt 3 from Foxwarren! #mbstorm pic.twitter.com/Pk6dsrdmsg

— Dayna Vettese (@daynavettese) July 6, 2017

By 7:30pm SST (8:30 CDT or Manitoba Time) echo tops indicated a fully formed tornadic supercell covering the area along the southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan border:

By 8:24pm SST (9:24 CDT) there were 4 active tornado warnings in Manitoba and 1 in Saskatchewan. The one in Saskatchewan would prove to be the main producer on the extreme south west corner of the supercell. Greg Johnson tweeted out this photo at 8:57pm SST (9:57 CDT):

This tornado was spotted just a few minutes ago at Alida, SK main street. Photo by Debbie Fraser @weathernetwork pic.twitter.com/xhSLajYEVe

— Greg Johnson (@TornadoGreg) July 6, 2017

Later in the evening and the next morning reports rolled in with hail the size of baseballs and damage to a house near Alida, Saskatchewan:

Baseball sized hail west of Alida Saskatchewan at 8:30 pm. Picture by Alysia Lea. #skstorm pic.twitter.com/pgiOAUr7Jr

— Prairie Storm Report (@Prairie__WX) July 6, 2017

Taken in Moosomin, SK. July 5th. #skstorm pic.twitter.com/HKrvG4dzQH

— Misheyla Iwasiuk (@MisheylaIwasiuk) July 6, 2017

Tornado damaged house near Alida, #Sask. Luckily family was safely in basement. More: https://t.co/LhMtUuDTek#SKstorm #YQR pic.twitter.com/Hk43ltoSMd

— Tiffany Lizée (@TiffanyGlobal) July 6, 2017

Video of tornado near Alida, Sk #skstorm at about 8:40pm sent to us via Emily Beers pic.twitter.com/j67d2JJDF9

— Prairie StormChasers (@PrairieChasers) July 6, 2017

#Viral #Weather Video of the Day: This funnel cloud (or tornado, if it touched down) was sighted near Alida, Saskatchewan, Canada Wednesday: pic.twitter.com/UhJOZpkbEW

— AccuWeather (@accuweather) July 6, 2017

Finally, Dan Lindsey and Atmospheric Scientist from NOAA/NESDIS tweeted out an incredible image from the newly launched GOES16 Satellite, dubbed as the future of weather observation and forecasting. This is the new high resolution animated satellite image of tornadic supercell over southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan:

Formation of strong storms in southern #Canada via #GOES16 1-min VIS - #mbstorm - data preliminary and non-operational pic.twitter.com/nXVryMLRua

— Dan Lindsey (@DanLindsey77) July 6, 2017

Extreme Heat Wave - Moderate Risk

July 3, 2017 Severe Weather Outlook Map #ModerateRisk #skstorm #SlightRisk #abstorm #mbstorm Strong early morning thunderstorms in north-western Saskatchewan are expected to expand and intensify south-eastward this afternoon and evening. Very large hail up to 4cm in diameter with damaging wind gusts will be the main feature to watch. Flash flooding, very intense lightning as well as a chance of tornadoes will also be a concern to be prepared for. If tornadoes form, they may become strong with very organized right turning storm cells. Here is the outlook map and current lightning as of 9:30am:

Heat warnings continue in Alberta and are expected to expand into Saskatchewan later this week. High temperatures forecast for today:
Medicine Hat 33C
Lethbridge 30C
Swift Current 32C
Regina 32C
Saskatoon 30C
By the end of the week those temperatures will feel cool compared to what is forecast.
Saturday forecast highs:
Medicine Hat 38C
Lethbridge 36C
Swift Current 36C
Regina 34C
Saskatoon 34C

Facebook Plugin Added

You can now see our Facebook Page without leaving the blog. This may be useful for reading tweets in the sidebar and keeping up with discussion on Facebook during busy storm days. This is just in the development stage at the moment but a new layout and dedicated page for this may be created in the near future. For now, bookmark this page and test it out. The current layout is most ideal for viewing on large screen (TV or computer monitor). Feedback is always encouraged and most appreciated. Please use the Facebook page for all comments and suggestions. Thank you.

Early Morning Storm Front with Pink Shelf and Roll Cloud

5:04 am, June 9, 2017 - A powerful nocturnal thunderstorm arrived in Regina, bringing a pink shelf and 3 sets of roll clouds. The forecast verified and I luckily woke up just in time to chase it by mountain bike only a few blocks from home. I quickly snapped a few photos in front of the Shoppers Drug Mart and then raced down to the shores of Wascana Lake. Quickly realizing time was running out, I manages one decent photo and headed back. A few more photos and an attempted timelapse did not work out as well since it got dark fast but I did see a couple of intense CG lightning strikes right downtown. After posting photos on Twitter, the Internet took over. I made a Twitter "Moment" to recap the excitement here:

https://twitter.com/i/moments/873626464800849920

Photo prints are now available on 500px:

https://500px.com/photo/215432355/early-morning-shelf-cloud-by-jared-mysko

Videos from YouTube:

Photos:

Wascana Lake

Second Wave