Hundreds of thousands were left with no information from Environment Canada on Sunday evening in Saskatoon as multiple funnel clouds formed over the city, stunning residents.
The startling sights were seen across the area from the downtown core in Saskatoon to the cities of Warman and Martensville.
Anyone looking for information from Environment Canada would find that the threat for funnel clouds had seemingly passed.
The severe thunderstorm watch that was issued earlier in the day had just been ended at the same time that the funnels were forming.
The only place people could find information on was on social media, where many were also venting their frustrations.
Saskatoon resident Janice Brayden says she is fed up with the way the country’s national weather service is run.
“I think we need to do either one of two things – either Environment Canada really needs to increase their service standard so they are issuing timely alerts for people or we need to remove that limitation so that other agencies like Global Saskatoon, which is a lot closer to the local weather and is active in predicting it, is going to be able to issue those kind of alerts.”
“I think it’s not safe if we don’t make some kind of changes.”
READ MORE: Environment Canada admits to differing standards of weather coverage
Global News spoke with Environment Canada to find out why no weather alerts were issued.
“There’s going to be events that do get missed, we’re not perfect at Environment Canada, we do our best,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Mike Russo. “The watch was ended probably prematurely by about 30, maybe 60 minutes.”
“But the information that you require as far as how to react when these events occur is all there on the Environment Canada website.”
Weather advisories had been issued for Saskatoon the previous week alerting people of the potential presence of funnel clouds, but no such notice was given Sunday night just after 6 p.m. as social media was flooded with ominous images.
There is heavy rainfall expected in Saskatoon on Monday and Tuesday, which there are weather alerts in place for.
READ MORE: Rainfall warning issued for Saskatoon and surrounding area
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