Tornadoes spotted in southeast Sask. near Melville, Yorkton
-
Share on Facebook
-
Share on Twitter
- Copy Link
Severe weather interrupted many people’s long weekend on Sunday, with tornado-producing storms that lasted hours.
Severe thunderstorm watches were first issued around noon, and warnings started popping up around 2 p.m. Shortly after 4 p.m. Environment Canada confirmed a tornado had touched down northwest of Melville and was tracking northeast. About an hour later Environment Canada started warning about more tornadoes moving northeast.
Katie Vickers was right in the thick of things. She’s a stormchaser and trained storm-spotter. Her evening started just west of Melville where she spotted the first tornado of the night.
“We had some intense roatation right above us, and then it just actually passed maybe about 100 yards just to the east of us. And then it went into a field and it actually dropped down a couple of funnels right then and there.”
One photo Vickers posted on social media is incredibly close to a tornado and she said it was wrapped in rain so they didn’t see it at first.
“We were getting hit with some pretty big-time winds, and we were kinda’ concerned of where exactly the tornado was going to be, and I all of a sudden just kind of looked and I’m like ‘um, it’s right there.’”
She said the amount of storm activity isn’t surprising for this time of year, but she didn’t think it was going to be as intense as it was.
For Vickers, Sunday night is in her ‘Top 3’ of storm chasing.
“First off, I’ve never been that close to a tornado. Structure-wise, as a photographer, the colouring was beautiful, I’ve never seen a storm quite like it.”
