Heavy rain floods parts of Saskatchewan
Areas like Watrous and Manitou saw more than 50 mm
Roads were flooded and basements were soaked intowns across Saskatchewan on Monday.
Terri Lang,a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada,saidthe Battlefords area was hit hardest.
"They came in with a whopping 100 millimetres. And that was in about six or seven hours," Lang said.
Other areas also saw heavy rain. Lang says Rosetown got about 46 mm, but based on models she believes the rainfall totals east of Rosetown could have been much higher.
"We saw on social media that there was somebody who had recorded five inches of rain," Lang said.
According to Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network (CoCoHRAS),one weather watcher reported55.1 mm of rain in the Watrous/Manitou areas.
"We know that there was enough there thocauselocalized flooding," Lang said about the rainfall numbers in Watrous/Manitou.
Storm chaser Jenny Hagan was in the Rosetown areaduring the storm.
"Spewing over road ways East of Rosetown #skstorm water is half way up the RR sign post," Hagan posted in a tweet.
She noted there was localized flooding in some areas and roads were getting washed out.
Heavy rain between Rosetown and Zealandia #skstorm washing overwhelming culverts at 5:30 pm pic.twitter.com/fY5I4KuvhP
—@LostInSk
Back in the Battlefords, Boyd Wakelin watched the rain start in the morning and continue all day. When it came time to go home, the walk to his vehicle was very soggy.
"Just even walking through the alley to get to my truck, you didn't have any option but to walk through a stream of water coming down the back alley," Wakelin said.
The drive home didn't get any easier.
"There are some areas around town that the water is flowing up over the curbs. Drainage just couldn't keep up,"Wakelin said.
Wakelinsaid his property didn't get any water damage, but that neighbours weren't so lucky.
"A lot of people have water in their basement and the rain amounted to six to eight inches," Wakelin said.
Ash Alam is the chief administrative officer for the town of Battleford. He saidthe area hardest hit in the city was West Park.
"Driveways were washed off. Some of the roads are very bad," Alam said.
Alam saidstreets flooded quicklyand people needed to be rescued from their vehicles. He saidareas around the schools were also flooded, but look better today.
Alam saidthe city opened a new wastewater treatment facility last month and that it handled the influx of rain water perfectly.
Lang said the reason the rain was so intense was a line of of thunderstorms movingin from Montana.
"Thethunderstorms sort of kept traveling over the same area again and again and again," Lang said.
Those storms prompted Environment Canada to issuerainfall warnings early Monday morning.
Rainfall warnings now in effect for parts of the central and Churchill regions. 50-70 mm possible by end of Wed.
Svr t-strm watches also in effect for Regina, Moose Jaw, Assiniboia/Gravelbourg and Weyburn/Estevan regions. Large hail and gusty winds are the main threats #skstorm pic.twitter.com/U8sLItzpUQ
—@EWilliams_CBC
As of Tuesday morning, rainfall warnings cover parts of central and northern Saskatchewan stretching fromMelfortthrough Prince Albert National Park, up to La Ronge, and over to Meadow Lake and Buffalo Narrows.
Lang saidthe same weather system is locked on the province, and as the low spins the rain and thunderstorm activity will continue.
"The highestnumbers seem to be in that Buffalo Narrows, Meadow Lake, La Ronge, Northern Prince Albert region," Lang said.
Lang saidwecould see upwards of 50 to 90 millimetres of rain by Thursday morning. There is also a risk of some embedded thundershowers.
Another element will be the wind.
"We're expecting some pretty big winds to develop across much of southern Saskatchewan," Lang said.
Alamsays crews are bracing for more rainTuesdayand the potential of localized flooding.
"We're going to close roads to be local traffic only.22nd Avenue from 22nd to the 25th. And 23rd and 24th Street." will be closed saidLang
So when will this system finally exit the province?
"You can put those umbrellas away by Friday morning," Lang said.