Large hail hits Rivers, Oak River
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/06/2023 (860 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hail ranging in size from ping pong balls to softballs fell in Rivers and Oak River on Wednesday evening, as severe thunderstorms passed over communities northwest of Brandon.
The Manitoba Weather Centre, which tracks Manitoba weather updates and is active on Facebook, received several messages about the hail and the damage it caused in the two regions, owner Justin Oertel told the Sun.
“It was a very strong supercell thunderstorm that was building for at least a few hours before hitting,” Oertel said. “The heat and humidity that had built up over the past few days only fuelled the storm potential.”
The Manitoba Weather Centre, a group that tracks Manitoba weather updates and is active on Facebook, received several messages about hail ranging in size from ping pong balls to softballs. (Submitted)
Dented vehicles and cracked windshields were among the reports to the centre, but Oertel said that the storm was short-lived and disappeared as it was about to pass over Brandon.
Stephen Berg, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Winnipeg office, said severe thunderstorms that feature hail are common when hot weather, like that experienced in Westman this month, mixes with humid conditions, in this case coming up from the United States.
“Those are both ingredients for the thunderstorms,” Berg told the Sun.
El Niño, a weather pattern that is the result of above-average sea-surface temperatures that periodically develop across the east-central equatorial Pacific, is to blame for the hot weather that Westman is experiencing, which Berg says is about 10 degrees Celsius above normal. Manitobans can count on continued above-normal temperatures for the rest of the summer, he added.
Although no producers have reached out to Keystone Agricultural Producers over worries about damaged crops, KAP president Jill Verwey says hail can pose a serious threat to early crops that have already been dealing with extreme heat early in their development.
“Hail can have some huge impacts on crops at this stage, that’s for sure,” Verwey said. “With the hail damage and with the heat, you could be looking at some fairly significant losses.”
Berg reminds all Manitobans to be storm-savvy, and to head for indoor shelter when a thunderstorm arrives.
“When thunder roars, go indoors,” he said.
» mleybourne@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @miraleybourne