Oxbow tornado represents strongest twister in Saskatchewan since 2010

What's been causing the recent stretch of severe weather - including tornadoes - in Sask. and Manitoba? Northern Tornadoes Project is looking into it.

The tornado that touched down near Oxbow, Sask., earlier this week represents the strongest funnel cloud in Saskatchewan in more than a decade.

The Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) project has issued a preliminary rating of EF3 for the Oxbow tornado. The Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale is used to measure the intensity of tornadoes.

“After the investigation yesterday, we managed to confirm that an EF3 tornado occurred, it looks like, from North Portal all the way to Oxbow — so a big tornado, big damage unfortunately, and that’s pretty rare,” David Sills, director of the Northern Tornadoes Project, told CTV Your Morning Saskatchewan Thursday.

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The last recorded EF3 tornado occurred on July 2, 2010, in the area of Raymore and Kawacatoose First Nation. That storm left 85 people without a home.

Tornadoes rated EF3 can produce wind speeds from 225 to 265 km/h according to the NTP.

The EF scale takes many factors into account. Rating the Oxbow tornado was unfortunately aided by the amount of damage left in its wake.

According to Sills, a farmyard in the area was completely destroyed.

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“We found there is basically a farmstead where almost everything was destroyed, so that gets us up above EF2 into EF3 range,” he explained, adding that the investigation continues along the tornado’s path of destruction.

“The rating could change. It’s very unlikely at this point because we think we found the worst damage, but we also do some kind of post-event research, using various wind engineering tools and that kind of thing, and sometimes we can upgrade the rating based on the results of those tools.”

Hirsch tornado

Damage survey crews were already in the Oxbow area investigating a tornado that touched down near Hirsch, Sask., over the weekend. The assessment on the Hirsch tornado was completed Wednesday.

That tornado touched down on Sunday, June 7, around 8:15 p.m. near the community. Hirsch is located around 230 kilometres southeast of Regina.

According to NTP, a survey team discovered a damage path which included damaged grain bins, snapped power poles and tree damage.

Minor damage to a home, shed, and two outbuildings were also noted.

The damage was assessed as an EF1 tornado with an estimated max wind speed of 150 km/h, a track length of 17.7 kilometres and a path width of 810 metres.

Hirsch, Sask., is located around 30 kilometres west of Oxbow.