River Heights storm was a tornado, Northern Tornado Project says
Posted September 10, 2026 12:43 pm.
The storm that ripped through south Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood on Sunday, plunging 7,000 homes in darkness, was a tornado.
That’s according to the Northern Tornado Project (NTP), which tracks and studies tornadoes across Canada.
READ: Violent weekend storm batters River Heights in south Winnipeg
The group says the tornado was rated as an EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which estimates wind speed based on damage.
“There was roof damage to homes, sheds, trees and vehicles, including a car that was moved,” the NTP wrote in a Facebook post.
It says the River Heights tornado was one of two in Manitoba. The other was in the community of Bénard, halfway between Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie.
The storm hit River Heights around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, leading to flooded streets, backed up sewers, fallen trees, downed power lines and damaged vehicles.
Roughly 7,000 customers were without power at the peak of the outage. That was down to 4,000 by Monday afternoon and 1,500 by Tuesday morning.
Manitoba Hydro says power was fully restored to all homes in the neighbourhood by 8:30 p.m. Wednesday — except customers with damaged service masts.
“We’re proud of our crews who worked hard to repair damage & restore service safely. Thank you to our customers for your patience, understanding & support throughout this work,” the Crown utility wrote on social media Thursday.
