100-year-old trees on Sask. farm torn out of ground by suspected ‘plow wind’

A Saskatchewan farm owner says a “plow wind” that hit Wednesday toppled trees and destroyed a vehicle on his land.

According to Environment Canada, the straight-line winds can be as powerful as tornados.

“There was thunder and lightning and it started raining out and it just came all of a sudden,” Murray Willoughby said. “The rain came and then a big wind picked up and hit our yard,” he said.

Willoughby told CTV News that some of the 100-year-old trees on his farm near Shellbrook were toppled over in the storm.

“Down the driveway, there’s probably a dozen trees like big spruce trees fell across there.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) told CTV News they had not received any reports from the area.

“We’ve had other reports of wind damage and SaskPower reporting outages and that type of thing,” ECCC meteorologist Terri Lang said.

“So if anything, the storms that we were having last night would be consistent with the plow wind for sure.”

Willoughby said one of the vehicles hit by trees was significantly damaged, but nobody was injured.

“Everybody was inside and the dogs took shelter,” he said, adding that some birds may have lost their homes.

Lang said that plow winds are prevalent in Saskatchewan.

“They are a lot more common than tornadoes,” she said.

“The vast majority of the cases it’s plow winds.”

Willoughby said the farm had been in his family for over 100 years.

“My great-grandfather came in 1903, three miles from here and he was there for maybe 10 years and then found this place. We’ve been here ever since.”