Westman fields devastated by storm
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/08/2022 (1278 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Deloraine-area farmer Kelsey Sunaert says he has never seen anything like it in more than 10 years of farming.
A series of powerful storms swept through southwest Manitoba early Tuesday evening, tearing into area crops with wind and hail, including Sunaert’s field, which was stripped of its wheat crop.
“I’ve never had a field hailed that bad,” Sunaert said Wednesday afternoon.
Shown here is the damage done to the wheat field belonging to Deloraine-area farmer Kelsey Sunaert. (Submitted)
The storm rolled through the area around 5 p.m. Tuesday. He, his wife and two young children were driving home from a family visit in Brandon, and it rained almost the whole way home, he said.
But it was the scene he found when he reached the first of his fields that shocked him. One of his wheat fields was a 100 per cent loss.
“There’s nothing left other than just stalks,” Sunaert said, estimating that 3,800 acres out of 4,200 acres of his crops received varying levels of damage, from 10 to 100 per cent. He also farms canola, soybeans, and one of his oat fields was hit with 90 to 100 per cent damage.
Sunaert said his insurance should come close to covering the damage.
Terri Lang, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said a string of thunderstorms that passed through the Deloraine region dropped ping-pong ball-sized hail and 20 to 40 millimetres of rain. Winds reached 85 km/h.
It was the same system that brought 21.3 mm of rain and 70 km/h gusts to Brandon.
Crops would not only be damaged by hail, Lang said, but also from wind.
Deloraine-Winchester Reeve Gord Weidenhamer said it looks like there were patches of crop damage throughout the entire area, with hail generally ranging in size from a pea to a quarter. One photograph posted to social media by an area resident showed pieces of hail larger than a toonie.
Weidenhamer said the area northeast of Deloraine seemed to be the hardest hit, and some photos he received seemed to show portions of crop that are a total loss.
“Not what you want to see,” Weidenhamer remarked in an interview Wednesday afternoon.
Weidenhamer, himself a cattle farmer, said the storm damaged to his grain and corn feed crops, so he’ll file an insurance claim.
Otherwise, Weidenhamer said he hadn’t heard any reports of injuries or damage to vehicles or structures yet. Although, he added, he wouldn’t be surprised if there was some property damage given what he’d seen. Lang noted powerful winds would be needed to keep golf-ball-sized hail aloft until it fell.
“They’re coming down at such a speed, they can shred a siding of a house in no time at all,” she said.
Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation said a complete picture for the number of claims due to the storm is not yet available. More details will be available in the coming weeks.
» ihitchen@brandonsun.com