Heavy rain and hailstorms struck Regina and several surrounding communities on Friday evening, with toonie-sized hail stones being reported in eastern Regina and as far away as Balgonie, about 25 kilometres to the east.

Kyle Ziolkowski, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the storms drifted slowly over the area, delivering rain on and off.

“Lots of really scattered, isolated, very, very slow-moving thunderstorms popped up late yesterday afternoon and lasted into the evening hours before they kind of finally started to settle down towards midnight,” he said. “They would kind of sit there, move off, and then another storm would redevelop in behind it.”

Ziolkowski said as of Saturday morning, Environment Canada didn’t yet have any rain estimates, but the agency had seen reports of one storm bringing between 75 to 100 millimetres of rain to the White City region, east of Regina.

“Just looking at estimated radar accumulations, it could be anywhere up close [to] four or six, and maybe as high as eight inches,” or roughly 100 to 200 millimetres, of rain in some areas across the region, Ziolkowski said.

Environment Canada also had reports of toonie-sized hail in eastern portions of Regina, as well as Balgonie and Pilot Butte, he said.

There were also reports on social media of flash flooding in the area on Friday.

Ziolkowski said weather conditions in the area made flash flooding more likely under fast, heavy bouts of rain.

“If your ground is already saturated, it could take less amount of rain to cause flash flooding, or it also can occur when it’s really dry. You can get lots of overland flooding because there’s so much air in the soil that water has trouble seeping into it when it comes down in such abundance and … in a quick time period,” he said.

“Cities tend to flood a lot quicker because there’s lots of pavement and concrete where water can’t go. It’s stuck on hard surfaces.”

Showers or thunderstorms are expected to continue through Saturday in Regina, with clearing on Sunday, according to Environment Canada’s forecast.

Ziolkowski said that Environment Canada commonly relies on the public to submit weather reports, and encourages people to send them in. 

People can phone Environment Canada with reports at 1-800-66-STORM (667-8676).