One report of a funnel cloud near Rocky Mountain House was received as severe weather struck central Alberta on Monday.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, reports of a possible tornado originating in Clearwater County, first came in at 2:17 p.m., with the storm tracking it’s way east and southeast throughout the afternoon and into the evening.
Jesse Wagar, Meteorologist, Environment and Climate Change Canada, says the storms began along the foothills as they often do in Alberta.
“We had several thunderstorm watches and warnings, as well as tornado watches and warnings issued for that time frame,” says Wagar. “Conditions were certainly favourable for the development of dangerous, rotating thunderstorms and tornadoes. There was a funnel cloud reported, it was a storm near Rocky Mountain House itself, but certainly as those storms moved off to the east and southeast that’s when we started getting the very large hail reports. At this time, we’ve seen nothing that would indicate that a tornado had in fact touched down.”
The Rocky Mountain House area also received dime and nickel-sized hail with the storm, said Wagar.
She notes, however, very damaging hail reported in areas east of Rocky Mountain House.
“There was damage to cars, up to softball-sized hail near Markerville,” adds Wagar. “That’s 10 centimetres-wide hail which is incredibly large. Then baseball to tennis ball-sized hail reported near Innisfail and over the QEll in that area. Looks like some cars were unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time and sustained quite a bit of damage.”
As for Red Deer itself, Wagar says the city saw between 20-25 mm of rain during the storms.
“Hail and prolific lightning, and of course, the tornado threat were the main hazards with yesterday’s storm,” she explains. “They weren’t really heavy raining type storms, but definitely the hail, the lightning, and again, the tornado threat and the winds of course too.”
Wagar says it’s important to remember that these types of storms are not uncommon in Alberta during the summer, so she encourages residents to always stay ‘weather aware’.
“Have a way to receive those alerts and know what to do to keep yourself safe when you do receive those alerts,” she exclaims.
Comments