Saskatoon residents woke up Thursday morning to a city in recovery mode after a powerful storm tore through the Saskatchewan capital overnight, leaving widespread power outages, downed electrical lines, and multiple fires in its wake.
The violent weather system, which unleashed wind gusts reaching up to 96 km/h, plunged approximately one-third of Saskatoon Light & Power customers into darkness. The thunderstorms rolled in around 11 p.m. Wednesday and lasted for a couple of hours, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. By Thursday morning, roughly 10 percent of customers remained without electricity.
The storm hit western neighborhoods particularly hard, with areas including Varsity View, Exhibition, The Grounds, and Avalon also experiencing significant impacts. Trevor Bell, director of Saskatoon Light & Power, confirmed that downtown areas fared better than residential neighborhoods. Seven utility crews have been deployed and are working throughout the day to restore service, though Bell acknowledged he could not predict when the last home would have power restored.
The Saskatoon Fire Department responded to 34 storm-related emergency calls within just 90 minutes, including multiple fires sparked by downed power lines. Fortunately, no injuries were reported at any of the scenes. City officials are urging residents to avoid downed power lines and report them immediately. Traffic lights at some intersections lost power, and drivers are being reminded to treat these locations as four-way stops. Road signs were also affected, with some knocked down and others blown facing the wrong direction.
City crews are currently working to clear debris, including tree branches scattered across roadways throughout Saskatoon. This severe weather event comes as Prairie provinces continue to face challenging weather conditions, including wildfires and flooding threats across the region.
