By Rod Nickel
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, July 21 (Reuters) - Tornadoes, hail and heavy rain battered Canada's crops in the Western provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan on Wednesday, as recurring storms curb the upside of expected bumper crops.
Environment Canada reported two tornadoes touching down in southwestern Manitoba, causing widespread building damage near Long Plain First Nation. A tornado also damaged properties around Davidson, Saskatchewan on Tuesday, the Regina Leader-Post newspaper reported.
Hail, ranging from the size of a golf ball to a tennis ball, battered a large part of southwestern Manitoba as well as some of southeastern and east-central Saskatchewan, said Brian Proctor, meteorologist at Environment Canada, a government agency.
Strong winds and heavy rain also swept across the region after extremely hot temperatures.
Canada is a major wheat exporter and the world's biggest exporter of canola. Traders and analysts are expecting some of the biggest crops in recent memory, according to a Reuters poll last week. Canada's crops are still likely to be large, but in southern Manitoba, many crops drowned in the last few weeks under heavy rain that has not quickly drained from fields, said Brian Voth, president of Prairie Farm Consulting.
The rain has noticeably damaged soybean, corn and pea crops in Manitoba, and raised concerns about disease, with cereal grains faring better, Voth said.
"The good stuff looks really good and the bad stuff looks really bad," he said.
Environment Canada forecasts hot temperatures to continue across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta for the next week, broken up by some rains.
The Saskatchewan government is scheduled to issue its weekly crop report late Thursday morning. GRO/SAS