Five tornadoes happened in one day in Alberta earlier this week.
All of the tornadoes happened on Monday afternoon in central Alberta, according to an Environment and Climate Change Canada weather summary released Thursday night.
ECCC said four of the twisters happened near Edberg, Alta., between 2:38 p.m. and 2:56 p.m. Edberg is a village located about 120 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.
The national weather agency said it received many pictures and videos from the area, including damage to a farm.
The estimated wind gusts ranged from 115 to 130 kilometres per hour. All four tornadoes have been rated as EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale which ranges from 0 to 6.
The fifth tornado happened southeast of Gadsby, Alta., at about 4:45 p.m. Monday.
ECCC said no damage happened as a result of this tornado and as such, the event was assessed at a default EF0 rating.
A tornado watch was issued on Monday afternoon for a swath of central Alberta. At the time, ECCC said conditions were favourable for the development of funnel clouds and possibly brief, weak tornadoes.
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“It’s not unusual to see a cluster of funnel clouds or landspout tornadoes develop under these conditions,” Global Calgary meteorologist Tiffany Lizee said.
“The environment at that time was not supportive of supercells, however, there is discussion around one tornado that caused damage near Edburg, Alta., and that it may have become a supercell/landspout hybrid.”
Lizee said Alberta has experienced eight tornadoes so far this season. Typically, Alberta sees 15 tornadoes per year, according to Lizee. Last year, Alberta recorded 19 tornadoes.
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