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Witness says tornado ‘formed quick’ as storms rolled through west-central Saskatchewan

Click to play video: 'Saskatchewan tornado June 15'
Saskatchewan tornado June 15
WATCH: A tornado touched down near D'Arcy, Sask., on the evening of June 15, 2021. Video courtesy of Dustin Rieger – Jun 15, 2021

Dustin Rieger had just fueled up in Brock and was driving home when he saw a small funnel cloud in the sky.

He pulled over to grab some photos and watched as a skinny, pig-tail-shaped cloud grew longer and developed into a full-blown twister.

He quickly realized it was forming right in line with his inlaws and own family’s home.

Rieger got on the phone and made sure everyone he knew in the area got into their basement. He followed the cloud for about 15 or 20 minutes, eventually watching it touch down.

“I thought they moved fast …  but this was one of the slowest moving cells I’ve ever witnessed. It moved really slow and it wasn’t very gusty outside of it. I got close and you didn’t feel the wind. It was a really weird system,” he said.

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Environment Canada issued tornado warnings for west-central parts of the province Tuesday evening.

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It covered the rural municipality (R.M.) of Kindersley, Mountain View, and Pleasant Valley, home to communities like Kindersley, Brock, Flaxcombe, Herschel, Stranraer, McGee, and Fiske. Later warnings covered Rosetown and The Battlefords.

Rieger captured several videos of the tornado touching down a few miles north of D’Arcy.

Fortunately, he said, the damage was minimal.

“It skimmed between two households … and broke one wire on the barbed wire fence and broke a post,” he said. “The only physical damage you could see is how it wiped off the crop in its path. It moved two empty bins and flopped (another) one over.”

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