Two tornadoes confirmed in Manitoba during Tuesday’s storm

The massive storm that brought torrential rain and hail to southern Manitoba Tuesday afternoon and evening produced at least two tornadoes, Environment and Climate Change Canada confirmed Thursday.

The first, pinpointed by Environment Canada Wednesday, was in Ste. Anne, southeast of Winnipeg. The second was in Dufrost, just east of Morris.

Investigations into the impact of this week’s wild weather are still ongoing, and there’s a chance more tornadoes will be confirmed, said Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor.

“It’s a possibility,” he said. “It was a very, very severe weather day.”

The degree of damage has not been determined yet. The investigation into the tornadoes is being managed by the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in London, Ont.

“You’re trying to sort of combine the effect of looking at what the damage is, how things were built, to get an idea the strength of the structures before the tornado went through, so it’s really a detailed process that requires significant amount of resources to do, and to do it properly,” Proctor said.

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Manitoba Public Insurance had received more than 8,000 claims, including hail, flood and wind damage, as of Wednesday afternoon. The number is expected to rise. As of Thursday morning, 1,400 people in Winnipeg remained without power.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.