Saskatchewan likely to surpass 2024 tornado total
It's been an active storm season across Saskatchewan this year.
The province is currently sitting at 17 confirmed tornados, and after a stormy weekend, that number is likely to increase.
'There's a number of others [tornados] that are currently under investigation ... including yesterday's from near Allan there, as well as several other reports of funnel clouds over the past several weeks so we could see that number creep higher still. And of course, we still have a fair bit of Summer to get through as well,' Crawford Luke, a meteorologist with Environment Canada said.
The area around Allan saw funnel clouds in the sky on Sunday, and Environment Canada is working alongside the Northern Tornado project to confirm and count the tornados in Saskatchewan.
'Fortunately, in this case, there is no damage that we know of, at least at this moment from these thunderstorms yesterday. However, it can make it a little bit trickier to confirm whether that funnel cloud did, in fact, come in contact with the ground and become a tornado or not,' Luke said.
At the end of Summer 2024, 18 tornados were counted in Saskatchewan. Given the current rate, Luke shared that the province should expect to exceed last year's total.
'We have more summer to get through, but also a lot of reports that are under investigation still. So I suspect we're going to see that 17 number climb higher. and probably surpass the 18 that we saw last year in the province,' Luke said.
The rainfall which comes along with these storms is also putting pressure on drainage systems in communities in the province.
The City of Saskatoon said that while the heavy rainfall can cause some inconveniences, the city is equipped to handle this particularly busy storm season.
'We got calls from about eight different streets that there was some ponding in the streets. And that can impede traffic, which is unfortunate, but what will happen over time is that small system or the minor system will remove that water or it will dry up and we can carry on business as usual,' Russ Munro, director of Saskatoon water said.
Saskatoon has two different drainage systems in place to mitigate flooding.
The minor and major systems each have a different role depending on the severity of the flooding, and Munro shared that both systems were in use during Sunday's storm, as different areas of the city saw various levels of rainfall.
Anyone with concerns regarding drainage issues is encouraged to call the City of Saskatoon.
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