Canada’s deadliest tornado levelled hundreds of homes in Regina
The destructive storm cut through the heart of Regina
The deadliest tornado ever recorded in Canada swept through Regina , Sask., late in the afternoon on June 30, 1912.
The twister, estimated to have caused F4 damage on the old Fujita Scale, claimed nearly 30 lives and levelled hundreds of buildings throughout the city.
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Established just three decades earlier in 1882, tens of thousands of residents quickly took root in the growing city of Regina. The Saskatchewan Legislative Building wasn't completed until just six months before the twister hit.
Dubbed by locals as the Regina Cyclone—a term used before ‘tornado’ came into common use—the storm that hit the city on that early summer afternoon formed in an ideal environment to produce violent conditions.
A surface weather map from that last day of June showed a low-pressure system pushing across the border into southern Saskatchewan.
Regina was located just north or east of the centre of low pressure on the afternoon of June 30—an area where dynamics are often favourable for tornadic thunderstorms.
Warm, unstable air flowing north into Saskatchewan provided the fuel for severe thunderstorms to blossom across the region, including the one that would ultimately devastate Regina around 5:00 p.m. that evening.
Photos taken in the storm’s immediate aftermath revealed the extent of the destruction.
The tornado killed 28 people and injured hundreds more. Homes that didn’t splinter apart in the high winds tumbled like dollhouses. Businesses and churches lost roofs, brick facades, and even entire upper floors. The Winnipeg Elevator Company saw its facilities levelled.
Residents had no warning of the impending storm. The first successful tornado forecast wouldn’t be issued for another 36 years, and Canadian cities didn’t benefit from life-saving weather radars until many decades after that tragic day in Regina.
Header image created using graphics and imagery from Canva and the University of Saskatchewan/City of Regina Archives (CORA-RPL-B-100).