Wild weather weekend destroys barn in Kronau, Sask.

Daryl MacKenzie spent Monday morning surveying the damage done to his yard in Kronau, Sask.

After a massive thunderstorm passed through the area on Sunday, his barn was completely leveled, leaving a tangled mess. The barn was built in 1910, and has been in his family ever since.

“There’s a couple of cars in there, a tractor, and — oh yes — an ultralight airplane,” he said. “It won’t fly again.”

Around 11 pm on Sunday night, MacKenzie heard heavy winds and looked out the window. He saw sparks going across his yard and his barn was already in ruins.

“I was pretty sure it was a tornado because the house was shaking, and I just bolted back downstairs,” he said.

“It scared me pretty bad.”

Everything in its path was destroyed.

“Some damage at my neighbours beside me, a lot of tree damage, and a lot of broken windows in vehicles,” MacKenzie said.

Pieces of wood were found sticking out of the exterior of his vehicles, and trees were “snapped like twigs”. A grain bin was thrown over 100 metres from one end of the property to the other.

MacKenzie’s neighbour Jaclyn Honeysett and her boyfriend were watching the lightning when they noticed what appeared to be a tornado ripping through his property.

“It was grey and black and white, and it was straight down to the ground,” Honeysett explained. “It was really loud and it got windy really fast.

“I grabbed my baby and we ran to the basement.”

Environment Canada says the damage was likely from a severe straight line wind because there were no confirmed reports of tornados in the area.

“There was some hail and some fairly strong winds in locations,” Environment Canada’s Gregg Walters explained.

Storm chasers have had this July marked on their calendars because it’s a La Niña year. It brought severe weather to the Southern United States, and now it’s wreaking havoc in Saskatchewan.

“The northwest part of North America ends up getting the rest of it during July,” storm chaser Greg Johnson said.

He’s been following all the severe weather in Saskatchewan, and says so far it’s shaping up to be a dangerous month.

“The storms this weekend, at least four days out, look like we’re going to see some heavy thunderstorms and possible tornados,” Johnson said.

It’s serving as a warning for residents across Saskatchewan to be careful this summer.