Leaves on the street in Gravelbourg after Saturdays storm. (Submitted/Marc Yim)

By Abby Zieverink, CKOM News Staff

Severe storms batter Sask. leaving communities with widespread damage

Jun 24, 2024 | 10:26 AM

Many people are left picking up the pieces from Saturday’s storms across Saskatchewan.

Environment Canada warned Sunday afternoon about a severe thunderstorm outbreak across central and southern Saskatchewan including the possibility of tornadoes.

At one point in the evening, there were a dozen tornado warnings in effect.

The weather agency is investigating five reported touchdowns, including Gravelbourg, Radisson, Aberdeen, Meadow Lake, and the RM of Bayne near Bruno.

In addition to the tornado risk, strong winds and hail battered a wide swath of the province.

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There were a few communities hardest hit by damage, including Gravelbourg and Estevan.

Mark Yin from Gravelbourg said strong winds and large hail, did a lot of damage.

“The entire town is pretty much messy. There’s branches and leaves all over the place.”

Heritage Place in Gravelbourg on Saturday, pieces of the building fell off, onto the parked vehicles. (Submitted/Marc Yim)

After talking to some homeowners, he said homes were also ruined, and fence posts were blown out of the ground.

Fence in Gravelbourg that had posts blow out during the storm on Saturday. (Submitted/Marc Yim)

“Some of the siding on their house got completely destroyed. The windows smashed their fence. It’s like Swiss cheese… There’s holes.”

He said several cars are also left with cracked windows and dents.

“I don’t think anyone was prepared. It just came all of a sudden. We weren’t prepared.”

Damage Yim suggested was out of the ordinary.

“I’ve lived in Gravelbourg for almost 12 years now and I have never seen anything like this,” he said.

“Most of the hail we get in Gravelbourg are just tiny like pebbles in size, not even going fast; but for some reason, it was bad this time here, like severe.”

He also said several cars are dented and have cracked windows.

In Estevan, photos posted to social media show golf-ball-sized hail that fell.

Debris is left on the streets at the corner of 5th Street and 12th Avenue after the roof after the roof lifted off the Soul Hideout building, causing bricks and the metal roof to fly and rain down onto the streets below.

Meanwhile, heavy hail south of Blaine Lake made it look like there was a snow-covered road.

The largest hail was in southern Saskatchewan. It ranged from quarter and toonie size up to 2 1/2 inches, larger than a golf ball, in Estevan.

“I am sure there will be many people looking at their roof this morning and calling their insurance companies, ” said meteorologist Brad Vrolijk.

He describes the storms as the worst of the season so far.

“These storms produced a whole bunch of severe weather. This was certainly the biggest outbreak this year in Saskatchewan.”

“The hail in Estevan was unusually large when you get above golf ball size that’s not a common hail size on the Canadian Prairies. A rarer event than we often see.”

Estevan was hit the hardest in regards to hail on Sunday. There were reports of hail larger than golf balls falling to the ground. (Submitted/Allan Scott)

-With Files From Brent Bosker and Discover Estevan