Tornado, strong winds and large hail confirmed in central Alberta

A tornado touched down near Wildwood, Alta., around 9:30 p.m. Monday as a storm passed through the central part of the province.

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Environment and Climate Change Canada confirmed on Tuesday that the tornado touched down and said there is no reported damage and the rating of the tornado is under investigation.

“We received a call of a confirmed tornado on the ground,” Justin Shelley, a meteorologist with ECCC, told Global News on Tuesday. “It was approximately 20 to 25 kilometres south-southwest of the town of Wildwood — so sort of in a more unpopulated area — and it was tracking east-northeast towards Highway 16.

“Thankfully it looks like it lifted before it reached the highway there but there was a lot of strong wind associated with that thunderstorm system.”

This is Alberta’s 15th tornado of the year.

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The storm that came with the tornado produced 8.7-centimetre hail, which is about the size of a large apple.

Shelley said ECCC also received multiple reports of gold ball-sized hail in areas where the storm passed through.

0:55 Strong winds and heavy rain seen in Drayton Valley

The hail and storms were seen in many areas around central Alberta, including Drayton Valley and Edson.

“It looks like it produced a widespread area of what are called straight-line winds, where you get very strong winds associated with an outflow of a thunderstorm, and it looks like, based on radar, those wind gusts were likely in the 80 to100 kilometres per hour range.”

Barrhead experienced winds up to 73 km/h, while Glenevis experienced up to 83 km/h winds, according to Environment Canada.

Environment Canada said a second tornado may have touched down earlier in the evening.

Around 6:15 p.m. Monday, Environment Canada issued a tornado warning. An eyewitness reported a funnel cloud northwest of Cynthia, Alta., at around 6:05 p.m.

The warning was issued for the eastern portion of Yellowhead County.

Shelley said Alberta traditionally sees a lot of thunderstorm activity in July, which can bring tornadoes, large hail and damaging wind.

“In recent years, it’s definitely an uptick in the number of tornadoes that have been confirmed,” he said, noting that there were eight tornadoes confirmed in Alberta in 2022 and three in 2021.

That said, Shelley noted 23 tornadoes were confirmed in the province in 2019 and “on the longer time scale, we’re actually seeing less tornadoes per year than we’ve seen in the 1980s and the 1990s.”

Environment Canada meteorologists are looking for pictures or videos of the tornadoes or any damage caused. If someone has any, they are asked to call 1-800-239-0484 or email storm@ec.gc.ca or tweet using #abstorm.