‘Quick and pretty violent’ hailstorm slams Winnipeg area

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This article was published 25/08/2023 (793 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Karl Truderung could barely see out his window because the downpour was so intense during a severe thunderstorm that ripped through North Winnipeg Thursday evening, unleashing winds that downed trees and hail that pummeled homes and vehicles.

“It got super loud and it was just leaves flying by… (There) was close to golf-ball-sized hail but it wasn’t round. It was kind of a weird shape with little pieces all stuck together … The yard was covered with ice. We were concerned about windows breaking,” said Truderung.

He said the storm lasted around 15 minutes in his area, while his home lost power for about 90 minutes.

Afterwards, he spotted a school zone sign with a snapped pole on the ground, as well as large, severed tree limbs. He said the wind blew a trampoline right up to one home, while hail damaged neighbours’ vehicles.

Trees smashed down on several cars in East Kildonan. Winnipeggers also reported damage to fences, windows, gardens and gazebos.

The localized weather event hit hardest in the area from West Kildonan to Transcona, as well as surrounding communities, while parts of Winnipeg were left nearly dry.

Winds gusting to 90 kilometres per hour downed healthy trees in north Winnipeg as the city received about 20 millimetres of rain, Environment and Climate Change Canada reported.

The City of Winnipeg’s 311 service received numerous damage reports, which included: 330 downed trees or broken branches/tree limbs; 18 flooded catch basins; 20 traffic signal malfunctions; and one (clean water) sewer backup, by 3 p.m. Friday

“Crews started working on cleanup/removal of downed trees and broken limbs last night, and will continue throughout the day,” wrote spokesman David Driedger, in an emailed statement Friday morning. “As it relates to traffic signals, two signals experienced very minor damage, which crews addressed. A few were temporarily affected by power outages.”

Driedger said 311 experienced a surge in calls during and immediately after the storm. The average wait time for callers rose to nearly 24 minutes between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. but dropped back to normal levels by about 9 p.m., he said.

North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty said a downed power line and extensive tree damage was reported in his area but fire and forestry crews quickly addressed any safety risks.

Browaty said the storm was unusually loud in his area.

“It sort of felt like there was an aircraft engine overheard just making noise constantly… The rain was quite severe,” he said.

The councillor said the “quick and pretty violent” storm also tore many leaves off trees and dumped so much marble-sized hail on one side of his yard that it was completely covered by ice.

The damage extended beyond the city. Winds reached up to 133 km/h in Dugald, while Selkirk was drenched by 110 mm of rain in just 30 minutes, according to reports from the weather agency and its observers.

As of Friday afternoon, reports of funnel clouds or a tornado had not been confirmed, said Terri Lang, an Environment Canada meteorologist.

The federal agency received numerous reports of large hail in Winnipeg, as well as the Alonsa, Dugald, Oak Point, Hilbre and Duck Bay areas.

Curtis McRae, who farms northwest of Selkirk, said the storm destroyed an entire field of his canola crop just before it was due to be harvested, a loss of roughly $250,000.

“Harvest is a time to reap the rewards of your hard work through the year and we’re going to have to do the same amount of work to get through harvest with no reward (from this field) … Nobody’s happy when they lose their year of work right in front of them in five minutes,” said McRae.

About 5,000 Manitobans were without power, as of Friday morning, which dropped to 3,700 before noon, Manitoba Hydro said.

Spokesman Bruce Owen said some damage was discovered as crews went out to restore power.

“What we’re dealing with are not only downed lines… there may also be damage to the poles, the cross-arms and the transformers… So we’ve got staff out through the area… (from) first light (Friday) trying to get as many people up (with power restored) as we possibly can before the end of the day,” said Owen.

Just before 4 p.m. Friday, the number of Winnipeg customers without power had fallen to about 100, with 729 provincewide. Those numbers included outages unrelated to the storm.

— With files from Katie May

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga