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Severe thunderstorm brings down trees and leaves Tagish residents without power

Monday, 24 July 2023 14:23

By Stuart Bonell

A severe thunderstorm caused some trees to fall and some flooding in Riverdale, this weekend. (photo Dawn Cervo)

The storm brought strong winds, heavy rain, and even hail the size of corn kernels to Whitehorse this weekend.

A severe thunderstorm rolled through Carcross, Tagish, and Whitehorse, over the weekend. In a tweet early Monday morning, ATCO Electric Yukon said that the storm has caused what they call extreme damage to their infrastructure in the Tagish area. Their estimate is that customers in that area will be without power for most of the day until they can make the repairs.

Strong winds and heavy rain brought flooding to Riverdale on Saturday, and even uprooted trees. The City of Whitehorse has asked residents to report any downed trees to the trouble line 667-2111, or to call 9-1-1 if the tree is near a power line.

Along the South Klondike Highway, there was rain and even hail approximately the size of a corn kernel coming down hard. Sections of the South Klondike Highway between Whitehorse and the Carcross Cutoff saw some mild flooding, and the wind blew hard across the highway, almost pushing cars onto the shoulder.

Sunday afternoon brought more rain to Whitehorse, with sections of downtown streets seeing flooding. By-Law services were out trying to drain the water on Second Avenue early Sunday evening. 

Environment Canada announced a severe thunderstorm watch on Tuesday morning. According to the announcement, weather conditions today could develop severe thunderstorms that produce heavy rain. The current forecast calls for similar conditions tomorrow, and sunny skies for the rest of the week. 

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