Well if the rain is all I have to complain about, I should count my blessings. This weekend Manitoba suffered from some of the worst thunderstorms and tornadoes in many years--in fact some of the tornadoes are the worst seen in 70 years.
Here is a quote from a June 25, 2007 news report:
People in towns and rural areas across southern Manitoba are dealing with the aftermath of at least seven tornadoes that touched down on Friday and Saturday evenings.
One of the worst-hit areas was Elie, a town of 550 people between Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie. A tornado tore a swath 300 metres wide and almost six kilometers long through the town on Friday, ripping buildings from their foundations, tossing vehicles and leaving 15 people homeless.
[Link to story: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/06/25/tornado-cleanup.html]
Here is a Manitoba map of the area:
This weekend Kathleen and I had been at a family reunion on the weekend in Spirling, MB approximately 45 minutes south west of Winnipeg. This reunion was to celebrate the 100 years since the Brown family homesteaded to The Lone ★ Farm. The Brown Family was living in Rockford, Ill before they moved before the moved to a homestead near Spirling, Manitoba in 1906. The family had the opportunity to either move to Texas or Southern Manitoba. When they chose Manitoba over Texas they called their farm The Lone ★ Farm in honor of Texas. Since there already was a Brown family in the Spirling district the family became known as the "Yankee Browns" to distinquish them from the other Browns. In the early years the "Yankee" Brown family was known to celebrate the 4th of July instead of Dominion Day on July 1st (now renamed as "Canada Day") which was celebrated by everyone else. Kathleen's Grandmother was born on this farm and lived there until she was married in 1930 and left home. The reunion was held over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday.
The reunion was a lot of fun Saturday ended with wonderful fireworks. We drove back to Winnipeg for the night. jus as the thunderstorms began. The sky lit up in such a spectacular manner. I have never seen such lightening. It was a lovely sight. Little did we realize the amount of damage this storm was creating. We were lucky to return home safely.
Here are some photos of the storm and the damage the tornadoes caused.
At least four homes were damaged and two homes were rated as unstable. Fifteen people were left homeless.
The storm tossed semis like toys into the ditch off the Trans-Canada Highway.
The damaged silo is part of the "Flour Mill" at Elie, Man.Elie, Manitoba was one of the hardest hit areas.
These storms also did damage to cottages about an hour west of Winnipeg at the cottage area of Whiteshell, Ontario. Here over 100 cottages were either completely destroyed or heavily damaged with many downed trees and power lines. From the reports I have heard it may take the rest of the summer to clean up all the damage, especially with all the downed trees.
My one question is "Are the storms Manitoba is experiencing this summer due to global warming?" Manitoba doesn't usually have such destructive storms. This is unusal, but in the lasttwo or three years has unfortunately become more common.
