Tornado likely ripped apart home, left path of destruction in southwest Winnipeg: expert

'It was absolutely crazy. I'm just in shock,' neighbour says after Whyte Ridge home badly damaged

A vicious storm pounded Winnipeg Monday night, leaving a swath of destruction in the city's southwest that included the partial collapse of a house.

It's likely a small tornado touched down in the neighbourhood, which is a rare occurrence in a big city, but more assessment needs to be done, says an expert working to confirm the twister.

"There was a line of storms that went through the city … and sometimes these linear sort of storms can actually produce small tornadoes that we likely saw last night," said John Hanesiak, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Manitoba who is working with the Ontario-based Northern Tornadoes Project.

He says they'll likely use drones to do a "wider-spread assessment to … see how extensive it was and get the damage path." An engineering assessment could give a sense of "the strength of the winds that might have produced that kind of damage," he said.

The storms tore shingles and plywood off roofs, razed fences, threw barbecues and sheds across yards, uprooted and snapped trees, and mangled a metal shelter for shopping carts in a grocery store parking lot.

"I’m absolutely astounded. I couldn't believe [it] when I started looking around," said Cyndi Porcher, who lives on Tolcross Gate in Winnipeg's Whyte Ridge neighbourhood, where much of the damage occurred.

"[It looks like] something you'd see in the news … down south," she said, referring to the frequency of tornadoes in the U.S.

"Just not what you expect to see in your own neighbourhood. I just hope nobody was hurt."

Hanesiak agreed it's far more common to see a tornado strike a city in the U.S. than one on the Canadian Prairies, but it can happen.

"It's a little bit more of a shock to us," he said.

Porcher's home was unscathed, as was that of Lila Hillman, who also lives on the street. Hillman's yard, though, is littered with shingles blown off neighbouring houses.

She said the worst of the storm hit just before 10 p.m.

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"You could just see the wind with debris everywhere. It was absolutely crazy. I'm just in shock," Hillman said.

The homeowners of the house that partially collapsed are out of the city, and Hillman spoke with them on the phone Tuesday morning to break the news.

"Not good, no," she said, breaking into tears. "They're going to try and come back in the next couple of days."

Hanesiak also acknowledged the emotional toll an event like Monday's can have, and called on the city to step in.

"There's people driving around here taking photos. The city needs to come here and shut the street down and … help the people locally here a little bit more."

The City of Winnipeg is still assessing the impacts of Monday's storm, but initial reports suggest tree damage is the main issue, with city forestry crews "already busy this morning," Tamara Forlanski wrote earlier Tuesday.

As of 7 a.m., the city had received 111 reports of downed or damaged trees and a couple dozen reports for plugged catch basins. There were also a handful of service requests for malfunctioning traffic signals, sewer backup and missing manhole covers, she wrote.

Rainfall warning for western Manitoba

Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the agency is still trying to determine the strength of the winds that hit the city. Airport gauges recorded a relatively minor peak gust of 57 km/h, but based on radar, it's likely gusts actually surpassed 90 km/h, he said.

With lines of thunderstorms, "the area of wind gusts … that are strongest often don't surface uniformly across an area," said Proctor. "They surface in sort of burst areas, and that's what we think happened last night, especially in southern Winnipeg."

When he spoke to CBC News earlier Monday, he wasn't sure if the damage was from a tornado or straight-line winds.

The latter, also known as burst winds or plow winds, are non-rotating, powerful bursts that can be as strong as tornadoes but are defined by a downburst rather than a rotating column.

Southern Manitoba has been rife with storms in recent days. A confirmed tornado wreaked havoc south of Rossburn on Sunday, tearing apart sections of a century-old brick farmhouse.

On Monday, intense rain hit Brandon, in southwestern Manitoba, and areas to the north and south, including Boissevain, causing overland flooding.

Brandon received up to 67 millimetres of rain, Boissevain had 152 millimetres and Deloraine, just west of there, had 130, Environment Canada data said.

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At least 100 millimetres was recorded in Shilo, Minto, Neepawa, Plumas and Rivers. Winnipeg, in comparison, only recorded 27 millimetres.

And Mother Nature’s wrath isn’t done with southern Manitoba yet. A further 15-50 millimetres of rain is expected to Tuesday fall over portions of western Manitoba, according to Environment Canada, which issued an orange-level rainfall warning Tuesday morning.

The heaviest amounts are likely through the Roblin to Dauphin area.

The "severe-weather season … really stretches through June into July, and sort of tapers off early in August," Proctor said, so "we’ve still got another month of severe weather season to go at least."

However, there should be windows of respite.

"I think we're probably looking at … a more stable, drier pattern as we move to the upcoming weekend," Proctor said.

Storm leaves severe house damage in Whyte Ridge neighbourhood

Darren Bernhardt has been with CBC Manitoba since 2009 and specializes in offbeat and local history stories. He is the author of two bestselling books: The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent, and Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravity and More Lesser Known Histories.

With files from Meaghan Ketcheson, Marjorie Dowhos and Gavin Axelrod