Twister touched down near Sask. wind farm Monday, Environment Canada confirms

Environment Canada has confirmed that a tornado touched down in the southwest part of the province on Monday.

It happened just north of the hamlet of Rheinfeld at around 5:40 p.m. CST. That's the location of the Centennial wind farm.

Craig Hilts of Prairie Fire Photography was there.

On his Facebook page, he says he saw what he thought was a funnel cloud forming behind a row of trees. He moved around to get a better view, and then realized what it was.

"I saw the rotation on the ground pretty much coming straight at me. Snapped a pic and bailed south calling it in," Hilts said in the post. 

The weather agency says it was rated an EF-0 — the lowest rating on the tornado scale —  with wind speeds in the 90 to 130 kilometre per hour range.

There was no damage reported.

Hilts was praised by the Northern Tornadoes Project for contacting Environment Canada right away so a timely warning could be issued.

The Western University-based group says it was Saskatchewan's third tornado of 2022. The other two were at Caron on May 17 and Maymont on June 10.