Tornado that damaged farm among 4 that hit Saskatchewan on Friday: Environment Canada

Fire Chief Thomas Lozowchuk says he has never seen anything like the tornado that hit a farm yard on Friday evening outside of Blaine Lake, about 80 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

While no one was injured, Lozowchuk says the damage was huge when he and his colleagues from the Blaine Lake Volunteer Fire Department arrived to help.

"Portions of the roof were ripped off," he said. "Lots of damage to the garage. He has a nice big horse trailer. It was just picked up, tossed. You couldn't even recognize it."

On top of all the destruction, one of the horses died in the storm, Lozowchuk added.

Grey metal bins toppled over and some were crushed, he said.

While the tornado didn't hit his own farm, Lozowchuk says, he found bins from the other property on his land about "a quarter of a mile away." 

CBC Saskatchewan reached out to the owners of the property, but they didn't want to comment.

Neighbours come together to help

Photographer Craig Boehm was another witness of the tornado when he was storm chasing northwest of Blaine Lake.

The damage on the farm was significant, he said, but it might have been even worse if the storm had been at its peak when it hit the property.

"It was definitely a strong tornado, long lived," Boehm said.

"The garage that was attached to the house looked like it had collapsed in on the vehicles. Most of the trees in the yard were were completely sheared off."

While the tornado was close to town, it didn't come right into Blaine Lake, Lozowchuk said, and despite the damage the tornado caused on the farm, it "was nice to see the community come together for someone in need."

Several tornadoes confirmed

The tornado near Blaine Lake was not the only one touching down in the province on Friday. Throughout the day, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)  issued several tornado warnings for different areas in the province.

The federal agency has since confirmed three recorded tornadoes near Paynton, more than 50 kilometres northwest of North Battleford, with the first report coming in around 4:00 p.m. CST.

"We don't know the strength of them," said Terri Lang, a meteorologist with ECCC. "They're rated based on the damage that they do. The damage has to be investigated, so that won't be known for a couple of days."

As of Saturday morning, the agency was not aware of anyone being injured by the tornadoes, Lang said.

ECCC and the Paynton Volunteer Fire Department said Saturday they had not receive any reports of damage near Paynton.

While ECCC has lifted all tornado warnings in Saskatchewan, extreme weather conditions continue.

On Saturday afternoon, ECCC issued a severe thunderstorm watch for several areas and a severe thunderstorm warning for the northeastern part of Saskatchewan.

"It is severe weather season in the province," Lang said. "The last couple of years with the drought it has been pretty quiet, and I think people kind of got used to that. But this is more typical of some severe weather on the Prairies."