WINNIPEG – Hail the size of softballs and winds gusting at 100 km/h left Roseisle residents like Cindy McDonald in shock.
“It never even crossed my mind that there would be so much damage,” said McDonald who has to patch up more than 85 holes in her home after severe storms swept through the province Saturday.
“The door was flapping and so my daughter had to put on my son’s like riding helmet to go shut it because she was afraid the hail was going to like knock her out,” said McDonald.
Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch in the morning and a tornado warning for Roseisle shortly after 2:00 p.m.
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Extreme hail fell in the area shortly after with heavy winds damaging cars, buildings, trees and crops.
“The farmland of Manitoba is the farmer’s gardens and they go to a huge expense to put the crop in… to see your whole year’s work destroyed within a couple of minutes is really quite devastating,” said the Reeve of Dufferin George Gray.
Dozens of farmers are feeling the effects of the hail that pounded down on their crops for 15 minutes.
“Aftermath, it looks like we’ve got hail damage to about 1,000 acres or so of crop,” said farmer Mike Orchard who has never experienced hail damage like this in the summer. Some of his fields are now a total loss for the season.
Tornado warnings cut through radio programming in Winnipeg just after 3:00 p.m. when the conditions continued getting worse.
The storm moved south west through Miami, which saw golf ball sized hail. It spread to the small town of Hasket where playground equipment toppled to the ground before moving across the border.
The final storm started to fade at about 9:30 p.m.
Viewers sent in these pictures of their extreme weather experiences:
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