This summer, 7 tornadoes touched down in Manitoba.
The tornado season started on June 23rd near a small community south of Winnipeg by the Canada-US border called Letellier, and that tornado was ranked EF-0. The tiny tornado was considered a landspout tornado and didn’t cause any damage to the area.
5 days later on June 28th, a tornado touched down near Rapid City, southwest of Minnedosa. The EF-2 ranked tornado caused more damage than the tornado 5 days earlier. Dozens of trees were uprooted and extensive damage was done to the inside and outside of a home in Rapid City. Eyewitnesses say the tornado touched down 2 or 3 times.
While it wasn’t a tornado, Dauphin saw a funnel cloud develop over the city on July 13th.
Only one tornado actually touched down in July, on the 17th near Swan River. There weren’t any damage reports in the area following the EF-0 twister.
August was the busiest month, seeing 4 twisters touch down in a period of two weeks.
The most powerful tornado of the year touched down on the 7th just outside of Virden. The EF-3 tornado produced wind speeds of 260 km/hr. It hospitalized a 54-year-old man, from Sioux Valley First Nation, with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and tragically took the lives of two 18-year-olds from Melita, Shayna Barnesky and Carter Tilbury. The tornado was on the ground for around 10-15 minutes damaging vehicles and farm equipment.
6 days later, east of Virden in the Alexander area, an EF-0 tornado touched down. Environment Canada didn’t receive any reports of damage.
Finally, two tornadoes touched down on August 21st both near Shoal Lake. The two tornadoes received ratings of EF-0, and neither caused any damage reports.
The 7 tornadoes experienced this year in Manitoba isn’t out of the extraordinary as the province usually sees 7 to 10 every year.
