This Day in Weather History - August 18

 August 18, 1973 Vicious Thunderstorms Produce Damaging Winds

A line of severe thunderstorms associated with a strong cold front moved through southern and central Manitoba late afternoon and evening on August 18, 1973. Damaging straight-line winds was the main cause of damage with the storms, with gusts over 100 km/h in some areas. Winnipeg Airport gusted to 122 km/h, one of the strongest gusts ever recorded in the city. There was localized large hail in the Parklands region of western Manitoba which did damage to crops. 

The strong winds damaged buildings, uprooted trees and knocked out hundreds of telephone and power poles causing outages. Crews worked through the night to restore services. In Winnipeg, store signs were knocked down and windows broken. Some roofs of homes were blown off, including in St Vital and St James Assiniboia. Many hydro and telephone poles were knocked down as well, including 11 on the University of Manitoba grounds. In Transcona, a tent at the Transcona Hi Neighbor Festival was blown down, putting an end to festivities. In the Interlake, 140 telephone poles were blown down along highway 7. Areas around Stonewall, East Selkirk and Garson were also hard hit. 

From the Winnipeg Tribune Aug 20, 1973, page 1

Other reports of damage as follows:

Sandy Lake: Two barns blown down, several boat houses overturned, roof ripped off a cottage, many shingles blown off.

Northeast of Russell and south of Roblin: Large hail damaged crops. 

Cracknell district: Swath of eight miles was devastated. Windows broken, crops 100% hailed. (Russell Banner Aug 23, page 1). 

Rossburn: Struck around supper with fierce near-hurricane force winds. Trees uprooted and snapped, antennas twisted, garages and buildings damaged, roofing torn off a commercial building. Gardens also damaged. Some hail damage 10 or more miles north of town. (Rossburn Review Aug 23, page 1). 

Winnipeg Beach: Dome of the theatre was torn apart by the wind. 

Piney area: Extensive damage to wild rice crops. Wind flattened some barley and oat fields. 

From the Selkirk Enterprise Aug 22, 1973, page 1

Weather reports as follows from Environment Canada:

Winnipeg Airport gust 122 km/h and 22 mm of rain

The Pas Airport gust 119 km/h and 33 mm of rain
Portage Southport gust 97 km/h and 25 mm of rain

Gimli Airport gust 90 km/h and 21 mm of rain

Dauphin Airport gust 80 km/h amd 30 mm of rain

Wasagaming 39 mm of rain

Winnipeg St Norbert 28 mm of rain

Stonewall and Stony Mountain 22 and 23 mm of rain

There were also severe storms all the way up near The Pas where a gust of 119 km/h was recorded. A tornado struck Carrot River Valley in eastern Saskatchewan at 5:15 pm, destroying buildings and snapping trees. (See newspaper image below). 

From The Pas Herald Aug 23, 1973, page 1

Sources: This post contains info from the Brandon Sun (Aug 20 page 1), Winnipeg Free Press (Aug 20 pages 1 and 4), Winnipeg Tribune (Aug 20 pages 1, 5 and 21), Steinbach Carillon Aug 22 (page 18).