A storm producing tornadoes recently swept through southern Manitoba, impacting the area near Swan Lake First Nation. Jackie Conrad, owner of the Lucky 7 Ranch, shared her experience as it passed dangerously close to her property.
Located just east of Saint Alphonse and north of Mariapolis, she and her husband Perry faced the storm head-on. Thankfully it didn't very long.
"When we got the alerts to the sun shining again, it was probably half an hour." She explained, "Towards the end of the tornado, it was fairly quiet. We started watching it and all of a sudden we started getting a lot of wind from the north, along with some hail. It was really kind of weird because it was sunny on one side of the yard and just nasty looking on the other side."
Conrad's horses, her main concern, huddled together and weathered the storm without injury.
"Luckily, the fence that did go down, we didn't have animals near it. So that was good. It would have been startling for sure. They put their butts towards the heaviest part of the rain."
Reflecting on past storms, Conrad admitted this one felt particularly close.
Based on videos and photos, storm chasers caught tornadoes on the ground near Baldur, St. Alphonse, west of Swan Lake and near Darlingford.
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