Cleanup underway after tornado touches down near Elkhorn, Manitoba
Posted August 31, 2026 7:44 pm.
A massive cleanup effort is underway in and around the village of Elkhorn, Manitoba, after a tornado tore through the area Sunday evening, damaging and destroying buildings in its path. Luckily, no serious injuries have been reported so far in the wake of the storm.
The tornado touched down near Elkhorn at around 6:30 p.m. as a line of severe thunderstorms moved through southern Manitoba.
The damage was especially significant near Kola just south of Elkhorn.
One farmer says the tornado destroyed most of the buildings on his property, including a hay shed that was completely flattened.
“We heard the rumble, and one of the boys that lives upstairs, we said, well, we better get him downstairs, and then I got a text from a friend up northwest of Elkhorn. That said, how are you doing? And I said, what do you mean? He said, well, here you have a storm,” said Kelvin Siemens, a Manitoba farmer.
“And I said, well, just a minute, I’ll go look out the window. And that semi trader looked like it was going to go over. And then one of the, uh, tanner looked out the window and said, hey, dad, the Haitia’s gone.”
Sunday’s tornado comes during what was already an active summer for severe storms.
Justin Oertel with the Weather Centre of Manitoba has been following storms across the province. He explains that weather conditions lined up well for Sunday night’s twister.
“We had an advancing cold front moving in from the west. And it’s a lot colder of a day now here across southern Manitoba this morning and now into the afternoon. It’s raining behind me here in Brandon, and there’s quite a chilly breeze. So when you get that unstable air clashing with the cold front, that’s kind of what led to those dangerous thunderstorms across southwestern Manitoba yesterday,” said Oertel.
Manitoba has had 11 confirmed tornadoes this year, roughly the provincial average, but the threat of severe weather may not be over yet.
“We do have possibly another couple of chase days coming up later this week, Thursday, possibly kind of in the Morden-Winkler area looks pretty active and maybe even Friday and into the weekend. So I don’t think mother nature is done with us yet. Yes, exactly. It looks like it could be a fairly warm fall and kind of a dry warm winter ahead with a super el nino coming our way,” said Oertel.
Environment Canada says the northern tornadoes project is working to determine exactly how far it travelled and how strong it was.
For residents, cleanup continues as damage is assessed.
