Manitoba tornado in June was Canada's strongest ever

The June 22nd tornado outbreak in southern Manitoba made headlines across Canada and caught the attention of even the American media. Why, you ask?

When powerful tornadoes struck three towns in the province, many weather observers knew this wasn't what Manitobans have been accustomed to. It turns out they were right. While Brandon and Pipestone in the western portion of the province dealt with their fair share of tornadic activity at the start of this summer season that's about to close, the small prairie town of Elie ended up receiving a direct hit by an F-5 tornado. Environment Canada announced on Tuesday that this particular tornado that touched down just under 30 miles west of Winnipeg was the strongest ever on record in Canada.

Media coverage on this story has made it to the forefront today as Global Winnipeg aired a nice feature on this story last night to give viewers a look at how Elie residents are recovering from the storm. It is video clip #30305 under Tuesday's video lineup. Today's edition of the Winnipeg Sun showed the headline "Destructive Elie twister called Canada's fiercest ever" while today's Winnipeg Free Press featured their news headline "Elie tornado strongest in Canadian history".

It will certainly not be the last time we may hear about powerful tornadoes in Manitoba. Remember that this region of the country is very flat as the Canadian Prairies is a northern extension of the Great Plains in the United States. What happened nearly three months ago happened to be the most potent twisters to touch down in the country. I still remember the destructive tornado that hit Edmonton twenty years ago. Even one edition of The Weather Channel's Storm Stories series featured it.