Tornado Alley Alberta/Saskatchewan

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/521000/ This is a BAD one.......there have been so many tornadoes reported, baseball size hail, 100mm of rain in less than 40 minutes, sheer winds (more destructive over a large area than tornadoes). Alberta was hit earlier in the day and Saskatchewan residents have been put on an all night readiness to head to the basement. Lots of cells popping up all over from the U.S. border well up to central and northern Saskatchewan. :S

They say the storms we are having are like the worst ones the U.S. Tornado Alley gets.



This message was edited Jun 17, 2005 11:27 PM

Radar image

How did things turn out?

John

Moose Jaw fared really well John.......the storm lost it's oomph before it got here. Since our population, for the whole province, is just 1 milllion, chances were the tornadoes would hit a farmer's field. One town below us was hit pretty hard by rain (4 inches in 40 minutes.....not good on flat clay land) and some farmer's crops and windshields received the baseball sized hail. In total 5 tornadoes were sighted within a half hour to one hours drive southeast of Moose Jaw. One farmer saw a tornado that reminded him of the big boy from the movie Twister.....he and his family ran to the basement and all the buildings (barn, grain bins, sheds, equipment, disappeared). His house was left standing.

We are on flood watch now....the flood gates on the rivers around here have been opened.

Our temperature 93.2F (heat and humidity combined).



This message was edited Jul 5, 2005 11:44 AM

This is what happened 45 miles away in our capital city Regina, Saskatchewan 80 years ago:
http://www.greatexcursions.com/excursion.php/CATEGORY_ID/11/ID/103/

Those are mammutus clouds in the first post. An indicator that some serious weather is coming.

Oh that is a scary sky! We're in rainy season now and are getting storms that dump a couple of inches in 15-20 minutes. I wonder why they usually come through just before or just as I'm ready to go home??

LOL...Stacey here that happens every weekend (or week) I have off. :(

I saw your place on the weather news when this was going on. All our weather moved North. We get clouds, thunder and a few sprinkles every day, but no rain.
trois

We started to look at our weather channel in total disbelief, bordering on almost fear, watching almost all the storm systems in the States heading up here. The one system from California streamed up and pulled everything in it's path.

The first wave of heat, originated in Texas, and it brought many butterflies we'ed never seen here before. The second heat wave, we received, came from the Nevada Desert.

Which area of Saskatchewan did you see Trois? How badly did they stumble trying to pronounce SK? ;)

Moose Jaw. They said it like I would, which might be wrong.

LOL.....Moose Jaw they would have pronounced right but Saskatchewan usually causes the announcers lots of problems.

Pam, have I told you that think my ggf lived near Yorkton somewhere in the 1880s? Evidently changed his mind about homesteading and ended up in Winnipeg.

No you didn't John. Going by my GGF diary those were very difficult times to homestead. One summer my GGF, who homesteaded near Drumheller AB, had too lush a food for his cattle (they got black leg...I think?), then a drought, then a prairie fire, then some really horrible blizzards.....lost a lot of cattle and he too was ready to move on. So he sold his team of horses and bought one of the first hotels in Moose Jaw.

So y'all have a *bit* of Canada in you....how many generations stayed here before crossing the border?

Yes I do! My father was born in Manitoba. He thought in or near Winnipeg but, my research shows that my grandfather's homestead was very near Ashern, MB. My gf's homestead was a "success" but, the Dutch immigrants he was with couldn't handle the life and many failed. Most of the family left Canada for California in 1919. My Dad was born at home on the homestead in 1912. The way things turned out for my gf me thinks he should have stuck it out.

So definite Canadian blood in you then John.

Can you tell me (and everyone else that reads this;) what happened to your GF or is it too personal?

No not too personal. He never farmed again. Did this and that but, never achived what he did in Manitoba. Those that failed in Canada were quite successful in California. Go figure! He died a broken man in 1938.

WOW - I didn't know they got tornados in Canada.

Sorry John missed replying to this thread......life's travels certainly has its ups and downs. So many found those years difficult. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta suffered horribly in the depression (dust bowl) years......farming then broke many people's spirits.

Karrie we don't get them too often, usually a few dance out in the country every summer. I saw one near the Battlefords (central SK) a few years ago. Moose Jaw has had 6 touch down within city limits.....Regina 45 minutes away has had around 27 over the years.

I found the legal land description for his homestead on the internet a few years ago. It would be great to see what is there now. Maybe someday I will! Marked out his place on a topographical, too. Now all I have to do is find some gas money!

The way prices are going up at the pumps lately....spring or fall might make the dollars you find go further.

Found this interesting write-up re: Hail and Tornadoes

Tornadoes

No other atmospheric event can match the sheer energy and fury of tornadoes. With top speeds of about 320 mph, they produce nature's highest winds.

Tornadoes develop in the rising-air environment of thunderstorms, and within tornadoes themselves the air spirals upward in corkscrew fashion. The stronger a thunderstorm's updraft, the more likely it is the thunderstorm will spawn one or more tornadoes. Because it takes a powerful updraft to keep hailstones aloft long enough for them to grow to large size (golf-ball or larger), the occurrence of large hail is the single best indicator of a tornadic thunderstorm. Not all thunderstorms that bring large hail will necessarily produce a tornado, but most tornadoes occur in thunderstorms that also produce large (golf-ball or larger) hail.


Rule: When a tornado approaches, always abandon a vehicle for more substantial shelter; even lying flat in a deep ditch is safer than attempting to survive a tornado in your car.

Fact: Half of all people caught in a tornado in their automobiles DIE.

When a tornado threatens, the safest place in a house is in the basement under the stairwell or under a strong bench, or on the ground floor in a small room (like bathroom) toward the interior of the structure.