No warning: Winnipeg neighbourhood residents question lack of tornado alert

People in Whyte Ridge are wondering why there was no warning for a tornado that ripped through their community. Jon Hendricks reports.

People in Whyte Ridge are still cleaning up the mess from a tornado that ripped through the neighbourhood Monday night.

They’re marvelling at the damage and wondering why it caught them by such surprise.

“There was absolutely no notification about any tornadoes or any high winds or things like that,” said Jodi Dare.

Dare wasn’t home when the tornado went through her neighbourhood. However, her security cameras notified her something was going on.

“We saw debris flying everywhere,” said Dare. “We saw our neighbour’s roof in our front yard.”

But no weather alert came over her phone. It was a different story on June 9.

A severe thunderstorm moving across the province sparked numerous alerts in the city, although no tornado actually touched down here.

“I’m not saying that storm wasn’t violent either,” said Dare. “But to get that many notifications and none when an actual tornado went through was pretty alarming, actually.”

So why wasn’t there an alert about this tornado?

According to Chris Stammers from Environment Canada, it’s because there were differences in the storm dynamics that produced it.

“The June 9th day was a high-end supercell tornado day,” he said. “We had a tornado watch issued well in advance. On Monday, we weren’t really expecting tornadoes because it was kind of more of a linear system that was coming in. And those aren’t typical for tornado producers.”

Still, some in this tornado-ravaged neighbourhood hope the weather agency will be able to do more in the future.

“This is going to be more commonplace, obviously, as we have all these weather events,” said Mara-lee Statham. “You’re going to have to look into that infrastructure that gives us better warning.”