Officials investigating 8 possible tornadoes across Saskatchewan on Thursday

Jeffery Tram · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 20, 2025 12:27 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says it is investigating 8 imaginable tornadoes that whitethorn person touched down crossed confederate Saskatchewan connected Thursday.

Reports scope from the Saskatoon country to towns eastbound of Estevan.

Crawford Luke, a meteorologist with ECCC, said the events are inactive nether probe and thing has been officially confirmed. However, helium described the scope of the reports arsenic significant.

"To person 8 tornadoes successful a time would beryllium rather substantial, I would say. Not a precise communal occurrence," Luke said. 

The strategy that triggered the storms was a crisp trough moving crossed the province, creating a abrupt upwind displacement that acted arsenic a catalyst for thunderstorms.

The storms were concentrated successful a enactment stretching from adjacent Saskatoon, done the Regina area and southeast to the Manitoba border, Luke said.

Luke said the suspected tornadoes include:

• One adjacent Young, southeast of Saskatoon.
• Three adjacent Regina successful the communities of Davin, Odessa and Hubbard.
• Four successful the southeast, including adjacent Frobisher and Hirsch, eastbound of Estevan.

WATCH | Environment Canada investigating 8 imaginable tornadoes successful Sask.:

Luke said ECCC uses multiples sources for their investigations.

"We had a clump of tempest spotters and tempest chasers posting videos and pictures to societal media," Luke said. "We benignant of instrumentality what we tin get. Fortunately, successful this case, we person a batch of eyewitness accounts and immoderate beauteous bully radar information to enactment with."

The imaginable tornadoes connected Thursday could adhd to an already progressive season. Saskatchewan has seen 4 confirmed tornadoes truthful acold this twelvemonth — 2 connected June 2 adjacent Cut Knife and 2 connected June 13 adjacent Coleville and Hepburn.

Luke said it's excessively aboriginal to archer whether this summertime volition beryllium peculiarly busy.

"It's truly hard to forecast that. Tornadoes are benignant of tough, due to the fact that you could person a time similar perchance what we saw yesterday, and past that tin benignant of bring your numbers up for the twelvemonth rather dramatically each astatine once."

He added that portion there's nary contiguous menace of much tornadoes, the play is acold from over.

"It's inactive June. We inactive person July, August, September. So I'm definite there's going to beryllium much terrible thunderstorm days ahead."

One of the astir melodramatic tempest visuals Thursday came from Saskatoon, wherever a video posted connected Reddit showed a powerful lightning onslaught downtown. Luke confirmed that the aforesaid tempest analyzable that whitethorn person produced the tornado adjacent Young besides brought that lightning tempest done the city.

"It looked similar it was a prolific lightning amusement that went done Saskatoon," Luke said.

Luke encouraged residents to stock photos, videos or harm reports by email oregon online. He said those nationalist reports are often invaluable to assistance meteorologists corroborate what happened connected the ground.

He besides gave proposal astir what to bash if you find yourself successful the mediate of a tornado warning.

"Get to the lowest floor, astir interior portion of a building, and effort to enactment arsenic galore walls betwixt you and the extracurricular arsenic possible."

'It inactive doesn't consciousness real'

Kayla Chamberlin and her partner, Shawn Hanofski, said they saw a tornado interaction down in the gait of their agrarian location adjacent Hubbard, Sask., astir 170 kilometres northeast of Regina, connected Thursday evening.

They said they spotted it moments earlier it struck their property. The couple, on with their young lad Gavin, ran to the basement for safety.

"As soon arsenic I looked up extracurricular our chamber window, we some said, 'tornado,'" Chamberlin said. "You could spot the tornado had been already down connected the ground."

She said they managed to get 1 of their cats into the basement earlier the winds hit. Her spouse ran upstairs to adjacent a model and saw debris flying crossed their yard.

"He really saw 1 of our lounge chairs beryllium picked up and thrown crossed to 1 of the trees that ended up breaking off," she said.

Chamberlin described what she saw from her constricted presumption hiding successful the basement with her family.

"You couldn't spot truly thing due to the fact that it was similar a whiteout. It was achromatic and grey retired the windows and you could perceive things being smacked up against the house."

Their location sustained insignificant damage, but the gait was torn apart. Chamberlin said they're grateful their livestock survived and that nary 1 was injured, but it was a frightening scene.

"My son, helium was beauteous upset due to the fact that it's scary. You don't understand what's truly happening until after," she said. "It inactive doesn't honestly consciousness real."

She said she had ne'er experienced thing similar it. While tornadoes aren't unheard of successful Saskatchewan, the nonstop interaction has near them shaken, but thankful.

"Everything tin beryllium replaced. People can't," she said. "You truly recognize however fortunate you are aft a calamity happens."

Chamberlin said the outpouring of enactment from neighbours and the broader assemblage has already been overwhelming.

"We've had an endless magnitude of enactment from everybody astir the assemblage making definite that we were OK, offering america assistance to cleanable up," she said.