Tornado-battered Manitoba starting to feel like Kansas

Is southern Manitoba the new “tornado alley?”

There’s a famous fictional story in which a ruby-slippered, tornado-tossed traveller takes a wide-eyed look around and declares, “I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

There are probably some residents of south River Heights in Winnipeg, on the other hand, who looked out their windows last Sunday and felt as if Kansas — the U.S. state that lies smack-dab in the middle of meteorological maps outlining the area known as “tornado alley” — was exactly where they’d somehow ended up.

There is now confirmation of a tornado touching down within Winnipeg, after several residents reported seeing funnel-shaped clouds during the intense thunderstorm, and the magnitude and extremely localized nature of the damage — including felled trees, snapped hydro poles, scattered fences and the deposit of a random automobile on one resident’s front lawn — certainly shows forces more formidable than strong wind gusts were at play.

As Manitoba Hydro and City of Winnipeg crews continued the days-long effort to clean up the mess and restore power to thousands of homes affected by the long-weekend weather blast, some of the conversation related to the storm focused on how extreme events such as this have become more commonplace in a region where tornadoes were long considered a rarity.

Manitoba seems to have experienced more than its share of funnel-cloud activity this summer — there have been 15 confirmed tornadoes this year, which is well above the historical 30-year average of about seven to 8.5 tornadoes per season.

Tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down during the storm of June 9-10 near Ste. Anne. In Westman, there have been several — three were confirmed on Aug. 30 near Elkhorn and Kola, with a fourth just across the border in Saskatchewan. And earlier in the summer, the Northern Tornadoes Project confirmed that the supercell tornado near Rossburn on June 28 produced damage rated at EF3, with a survey team documenting a 13.8-kilometre track of damage — including a century home.

Several other intense storms have also occurred around the province with torrential rainfall and wind speeds exceeding 130 km/h.

Environment Canada meteorologist Dan Fulton said it’s too simplistic to blame climate change alone for the frequency and intensity of this summer’s storms, as other factors also contribute to the season of storms we’ve experienced in 2026.

“This is an active summer for thunderstorms, but it’s not to say that next summer won’t be the complete opposite,” he said.

What Fulton is saying rings true. In 2025, Manitoba had a mostly quiet and average year, with an early burst of severe weather in May that dropped a few brief twisters near Sperling and Niverville. But the rest of the year was relatively low key with only a few weak touchdowns.

And in spite of the intense season of storms we have been experiencing this season, it’s worth noting that this is not the worst storm season on record for tornadoes. That dubious distinction goes to 1991, which holds the record for the highest number of tornadoes recorded in a single Manitoba season — 18 in total.

Or if you’re looking for worst tornado on record, that would be the 2007 tornado at Elie, Canada’s only officially recorded F5/EF5 tornado.

Given the conclusions of the just-released document, “Canada’s Changing Climate Report,” however, the likelihood of future summers with more frequent and more intense storms seems much greater than the chance there will be fewer extreme events.

The report, released Sept. 3 by Environment and Climate Change Canada, outlines how warming temperatures are driving a concerning number of “interconnected and sustained changes across Canada,” and states “the warming and associated changes in climate in Canada are effectively irreversible.”

Also among the effects of those changes are sustained periods of drought and the increased frequency of wildfires that accompany them, as well as more intense storms followed, in some instances, by flash flooding.

Since the climate shifts that contribute to such alarming trends are now considered beyond any possibility of being reined in, we are left with the daunting prospect of planning for, reacting to and recovering from more frequent weather-related catastrophes as the planet continues to warm.

Emergency planning by provinces and cities must take into account the heightened possibility of disaster-magnitude events, and contingency plans must be in place for immediate repair and restoration of vital utility services after calamity strikes.

It’s a costly and labour-intensive scenario to consider, but there’s no excuse for not being prepared. Governments at all levels must summon the political and budgetary will to be prepared for what now seems to be the inevitable.

No, we’re not in Kansas, Toto. But the way things are going, it seems fairly certain we’ll experience more summer nights in Manitoba when it seems like we are.

» Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun