Environment Canada has confirmed that a weak landspout tornado touched down north of Schuler, Alta. Wednesday afternoon.
There are no reports of damage near the community northeast of Medicine Hat, though Environment Canada meteorologists are “actively seeking pictures of the tornado damage it may have caused.”
Large parts of southern Alberta were under special weather advisories warning of potential funnel clouds Wednesday.
Landspout tornadoes and supercell tornadoes differ greatly, though they can both be destructive.
“Landspouts lack the mesocyclone that supercell tornadoes have, thus making them less violent. However they can still cause damage and injury with winds over 100km/h possible,” explained Global News meteorologist Jesse Beyer.
“Due to their small size and conditions of development, landspout tornadoes are not easily picked up on radar.”
“Landspouts occur when weak rotation is ingested into the updraft of a developing thundershower, connecting a rotating column of air to the ground,” Beyer said.
It is unclear whether these photos of a funnel cloud near Hilda and Schuler, Alta. were from the same event Wednesday. Twitter users David McKinstry and Marianne Wells posted these funnel cloud photos to Twitter. The time and location of the reported low-hanging funnel in these photos coincide closely with the Environment Canada confirmed touch-down north of Schuler, Alta.