Earth Changes
"These thunderstorms are tracking east-northeast at 50 km/h and have a history of producing hail the size of golf balls in Melita and Souris earlier this morning," stated a warning issued by Environment Canada at noon.
"Brandon and communities west and south of the city are in the direct path of the strongest thunderstorms in this cluster and should prepare for large hail."

Many homes and cottages along the south shore of Lake Manitoba have been severely damaged by Tuesday's violent storm
The storm hit on Tuesday, damaging numerous properties in the Rural Municipality of St. Laurent - Twin Lakes Beach, Laurentian Beach, Delta Beach, and Sandpiper Beach.
David Sawicky said Wednesday he had to wade into rising floodwaters at his home to rescue his father and his dog.
Still, Sawicky said, he didn't expect the damage to his property to be that bad.

Pfc. Brian Smith places sandbags on a levee at the Pierre, S.D., Water Reclamation Plant to protect the facility from flood waters
Other states such as Tennessee, Vermont and Wyoming are also seeing flooding as flood operations in Kentucky come to a close.
As of 5 p.m., May 31, 2011, about 2,000 North Dakota Guard members were on state active duty in response to rising waters in Burleigh, Morton and Ward Counties as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened dams up-river that are over-saturated with heavy rainwater and snowmelt.
Riverboats plied its waters from St. Louis to Sioux City providing the goods, products and people to turn a frontier town into a thriving city on the plains. Through the years, the Missouri bit back - flooding the tri-state area numerous times and causing millions of dollars worth of damage.
By Journal accounts, the flood of 1952 surpassed all previous records, including the historic flood of 1881.
The river reached its crest of 24.3 feet on the morning of Monday, April 14, 1952, according to Journal stories. The swollen river easily overtook its banks, inundating North Sioux City, Sioux City, South Sioux City and points south.
By comparison, due to a series of upriver dams and channelization, the Missouri's depth in Sioux City is 28.05 as of 4 p.m. Wednesday. Flood level is 30 feet.
After receiving showers yesterday morning, rains and thunder squall with a wind speed of over 45 kmph hit Chandigarh last night.
Power supply was disrupted at many places in the city and it took a few hours before it could be restored. Many low-lying areas were water-logged and trees could be seen uprooted this morning.
Some residents here also complained that their electrical appliances were damaged due to excess voltage from trees falling on power lines.
Weekly Weather Summary: The period began with a widespread area of severe weather (mainly strong winds and large hail) across the East Coast states, though with minimal tornadic activity, especially when compared to the previous week. Several other severe weather events followed in the days ahead, first over the middle Mississippi Valley and southern Great Lakes region, and then over the northern and central Great Plains. A widespread area of heavy precipitation (2 inches or greater) was observed from Kansas and Nebraska eastward across the middle Mississippi Valley and southern Great Lakes region. Unfortunately, this broad area doesn't need the rain, whereas the drought areas to the south (southern Plains, Gulf Coast, and South Atlantic states) received little in the way of beneficial rain. Temperatures averaged anywhere from 4 to 10 degrees (F) above average across most of the East, Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, Gulf Coast states, lower half of the Mississippi Valley, the southern Plains, and the interior Southwest. Elsewhere, which includes much of the northern and western CONUS, temperatures generally ranged from 4 to 10 degrees (F) below average.
Police and National Guard soldiers went door-to-door in Minot urging up to 12,000 residents to evacuate as officials cut natural gas service to neighborhoods affected by rising waters along the Souris River, a Red River tributary.
Flooding on the Souris has eclipsed records set in damaging floods in 1976 and 1969 and forced Amtrak to suspend service on its Empire Builder line west of St. Paul due to track closings and damage to its Minot station.
Volunteers, contractors and National Guard soldiers and airmen were racing on Wednesday to extend and raise levees in North and South Dakota cities including both state capitals to hold back the rising Missouri River.

A study found that the rooting behavior of feral pigs in California reduces the number and size of oak tree seedlings.
That has led federal agencies to launch an ambitious program that will use cage traps, corral traps, federal hunters with guns and dogs and even shooting from helicopters to exterminate the area's population of wild swine. Officials see the pigs as a threat to fragile ecosystems and public health and safety. Environmentalists worry about the damage wild pigs will do to the county's sensitive habitat, much of it rebounding from Southern California's catastrophic wildfires of the last decade.
The U.S. Forest Service estimates there are 200 to 300 feral pigs in San Diego County. There's also a small sounder of pigs near the Riverside County border that likely was there prior to the release of pigs in late 2006 on the Capitan Grande Indian Reservation behind El Capitan Reservoir in the San Diego River bed. Hunters who spend a lot of time in the backcountry say the population is three to four times that now and it will be useless to try and eradicate them.
Still, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are developing a plan to eliminate as many feral pigs as possible, as soon as possible.

A resident in Twin Lakes Beach, in the RM of St. Laurent, wades through high waters to save belongings during Tuesday's flood and storm.
The Manitoba government says 16 people had to be rescued Tuesday, including one person who had to be lifted out by helicopter in the Rural Municipality of St. Laurent.
So far, 238 people who evacuated from the area have registered with the Red Cross.
Several roads have been washed out or overtopped with water and the government says they will have to be inspected before evacuees can return.
More than 700 seasonal and permanent properties have been on mandatory evacuation notices around Lake Manitoba due to flooding.







