Following a trend in southern Saskatchewan, the Weyburn region was hit hard by summer storms and heavy rainfall this past week.

On Thursday, severe weather ripped a path through the Pangman-Parry-Khedive area, damaged crops and property around Yellow Grass, and deluged the Francis area.

Official reports have been slow to come in, but Bob Cormier of Environment Canada said Yellow Grass had golf ball-sized hail, 40 mm of rain fell in Francis in half an hour and Weyburn received 6 mm of rain.

Strong winds drive hail

The size of the hail was not the only important factor in Thursday's storm. Strong winds caused the hail to come down in a fierce bombardment on crops and homes.

"You can have pea-sized hail driven by high winds and it cuts the crops down like a lawn mower," said Cormier.

"Some parts around the yard were 100 per cent hailed out, and there's lots of water everywhere, but the hail wasn't that big, maybe about half an inch around," said Brady Marshall, who farms northwest of Yellow Grass. "Straight north of Yellow Grass, buildings got moved they had more building damage."

Other residents in the area echoed those sentiments. Lorne McClinton, whose land is spread out, said the storm did not damage all of his crop but did destroy his neighbours' crops, concentrated where the storm hit hardest.

McClinton's house and vehicles were not spared.

"We had windows broken, the siding's beat up pretty bad we had a lot of damage to the cars. We weren't here and the cars were just sitting outside."

"It's fairly variable from one place to the next," said Alan Whitrow, also of the Yellow Grass area. "Out of 1400 acres, we've probably got 70 to 80 per cent hailed out. There's lots of flooding. We lost a row of six grain bins just south of our yard, just gone They were picked up and flew across the road. It must have been some sort of twister."

Twister causes havoc in the west

Reports of twisters were rampant through the Pangman-Parry-Khedive area on Thursday.

"A tornado went up and took cemented granaries right out of the ground east of the No. 6 highway, Thursday around 2 p.m.," said Pangman resident Debbie Kessler. "The sidings of [our] two buildings have to be redone, the roofs need to be reshingled, the hail chipped the paint quite bad on the barns, and they were just newly painted about a year and a half ago. A vehicle was damaged and we lost the garden."

Pangman area farmer Fred Liggett had seen similar storms while he was living in Oklahoma and in Texas, but the wrath of Thursday's storm was the most serious he had ever seen.

"Crops were shredded. Some that were knee-high are now at ground level. As soon as the hail stopped, the tornado hit and all the crop was gone within a six-mile radius," said Liggett of the destruction.

Despite warnings of a storm and possible tornadoes, Kessler and many of her friends and neighbours were puzzled by Thursday's weather.

"The clouds looked bad, but it was quiet. One thing we thought was odd was that there was no lightning and no thunder, and after the storm it was still hot," she said.

"It was quite unnerving. My neighbour has three plywood bins, and I saw them bump together, and the boards scattered [over several miles]," said Liggett, who rode out the storm in his car. While more severe, Thursday's storm was reminiscent of the hail and heavy rains that hit Parry on June 18 last year. After last year's damage, Liggett had to get a new roof. This year, the repairs will probably be more extensive.

"We lost three grain bins, totally destroyed, four augers were damaged and all twisted together, and lots of odds and ends were damaged. The trees were stripped of half their leaves I have triple-pane windows on the west side of the house, and the first two panes were broken (in two of them). There are hundreds of holes in the vinyl siding and the black steel roof was just dinted like you took a hammer to it," Liggett said.

"[The hail] was about the same size of a golf ball. We froze some of them, but you could tell the size of the hail by the holes in the siding - they took quite the chunks out," said Kessler.

Rain soaks the fields

Kessler estimated that area received almost two inches within a couple of hours. The deluge not only soaked the fields, but caused dangerous conditions on rural roads.

"It was a downpour It came down from the hills, and this gentleman was driving down the road into a little creek area, and the water met him on the road and washed him right off the road. Some passersby saw this just at the right time and helped him safely out," explained Kessler.

Thursday's storm dumped more precipitation in an area that's in need of dry, hot weather, and further complicated the crop situation. Rain fell again on Sunday evening, pouring 11 mm of precipitation in Weyburn and another 9 mm in Yellow Grass. Pools of water in the fields were still evident this week.

"[The water] is a buildup from the whole year; rain this week, rain the week before that. Now it's just sitting around - the ground's saturated," said Brady Marshall of the frustrating weather.

Lightning strikes church

Farms were not the only victims of the recent wild weather. On Sunday evening, lightning struck the Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1 km north and approximately 20 km east of Tribune.

Rita Dedora, a resident in the area, was among the first people to notice the fire.

"I have a house on a hill, and I can see all around me, and I spotted it (The church) was already engulfed in flames," she said. Dedora estimated the time to be around 9:30 to 10 p.m.

"It didn't take long to go down. It was around 10 or 10:30 p.m. when it happened," said Terry Frederick whose farm is just north of the church. "There was a little coal in the basement that was still burning [the next morning]."

The church, which was erected in 1926, was a landmark for the Tribune area, according to local resident Lionel Hunstad.

"It was deemed a heritage site a few years ago, and we got grants for fixing it up and keeping it up. It hasn't been used as a church for a few years," said Hunstad. He noted the church has been used and was available for various functions since.

Hail, rain and wind swept through farmland west, north and south of Weyburn in the past week, causing minimal damage in some areas and completely wiping out crops in others.

A wide storm system cut through the Pangman area last Thursday, and made it's way up to Yellow Grass, where it narrowed and continued up towards Osage and Montmartre, and died out around Whitewood.

"In the path of the storm there were degrees of damage, but certainly there was some 100 per cent crop damage," said Weyburn agrologist Elaine Moats.

On Sunday night a storm system dropped hail in the Tribune area, causing serious crop damage and the destruction of the Lutheran church outside of Tribune after it was struck by lightning.

Some of the later-seeded crops may come back from hail damage, although this late in the season they may not survive the fall weather, said Moats.

Crop damage from flooding has also been reported throughout the southern grainbelt. The Weyburn crop district received the most rainfall, with an average high of 89 mm, although it was a small amount in comparison to the 300 mm that caused flooding in the Vanguard area.

Within the Weyburn crop district, the RM of Caledonia received the most rain with 162 mm. The RM of Brokenshell was next at 91 mm, while Wellington saw 86 mm, Fillmore saw 85 mm, Cymri received 84 mm, Weyburn had 81 mm, Scott got 76 mm, Norton got 75 mm and Griffin received 63 mm.

Crops that were not hit with hail or heavy rain actually benefited from the hot days that caused the severe weather in the first place.

"The crop has really responded to the heat - it needed the heat. We are fortunate because we do have the moisture to sustain the crop in the rapid growth it's going through. Crop development had been really lagging," said Moats.

Wheat midge began to emerge on area crops last week, showing up on some of the earlier-seeded wheat that has begun to head out. Flea beetles have moved out of the area.

Water-related disease has become a factor for crops across the southern grainbelt. In the Weyburn crop district, crop reporters have noted mold in fields.

Haying operations in the Weyburn area have been delayed by rain, with quality starting to become a concern as rainfall continues.

"The delay in (bailing) cut hay can result in poor nutrient quality in the hay," Moats said.

Warm, dry weather is needed soon to harvest hay at its optimum quality.