WINNIPEG – Environment Canada has confirmed a tornado touched down near Killarney, Man., at about 8:40 p.m. Sunday night.
Reports of a second tornado, 10 kilometres north of Waskada, Man., at about 7:30 p.m., are still unconfirmed.
The severe weather smacked southern Manitoba on Sunday evening, with reports of funnel clouds in addition to the tornado reports and flooding in the town of Deloraine, Man., where 63 millimetres of rain fell, filling streets with water.
Facebook user Janelle Macaulay witnessed the tornado near her parents’ farm southeast of Killarney, which is about 200 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.
“Everything is all good, just some hay swathes thrown around and up onto hydro lines,” she posted on Facebook. She also tweeted that it touched down “quickly into a field.”
Storm chaser Greg Johnson said he and his crew saw a tornado near Goodlands, Man., which was likely the unconfirmed Waskada twister.
“We were just sort of positioned a few hundred yards away and next thing you know, this rope tornado developed out of the base of it,” Johnson said. “It was pretty amazing.”
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The weather system had all the characteristics of a classic tornado-producing storm, with a rapidly rotating wall cloud, he said.
“This was on par with anything we’ve seen across the plains,” he said. “It was an amazing storm.”
There were no reports of damage from tornadoes.
But Johnson expressed concern about the effects of flooding in the area.
“We saw areas where … they literally looked like Louisiana swamps,” he said. “There’s been so much rain over the last few weeks that the trees had water … two, three feet up the base of the tree.”
Overland flooding in Deloraine filled streets, but thanks to hard work with pumps, the water was mostly mopped up by Monday morning, a town official said.
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“It is just amazing what manpower and pumps can do in several hours,” Deloraine chief administrative officer Debbie Adams said. “Things are looking a 100 per cent better due to a lot of hard work.”
The Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg received 36 millimetres of rain, Environment Canada said.
There were no reports of hail.
Johnson said he expects Manitoba to get more extreme weather in the near future.
“The Canadian prairies are the place to be over the next few weeks for sure.”
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