The weather warnings may have ended for Alberta, but on Saturday Mother Nature delivered another wild ride as parts of Alberta experienced a freak spring snowstorm, heavy rain and even a small tornado.
Environment Canada meteorologist Kyle Fougere said a landspout tornado touched down 40 kilometres north of Stettler and did some damage to a farm late Saturday afternoon. There were no reports of injuries.
A landspout tornado touched down 40 kilometres north of Stettler and did some damage to a farm. That type of weather event is smaller and less of a safety risk than a tornado spotted earlier in the week in southern Alberta, according to Fougere.
“The one in Taber was an actual, real tornado that formed from what we call a supercell thunderstorm. That’s your dangerous tornado, a big one that comes from a thunderstorm that would have really strong winds and really large hail associated with it,” he said.
“These are much weaker thunderstorms that we have today.”
Environment Canada had issued a tornado watch for a large swath of south and central Alberta for several hours on Saturday, which included Leduc, Devon, Airdrie, Cochrane, Olds, Sundre, Red Deer, Ponoka, Innisfail and Stettler.
Meanwhile, Environment Canada also predicts some 100 millimetres of rain could fall this weekend, but rainfall warnings have ended for parts of southern Alberta.
Snow blanketed Canmore on Saturday as groundwater seeped into the basements of some unlucky homes and businesses.
“Literally, people are sucking water up with a vacuum,” said Laura Finlay, manager of the local Home Hardware.
After selling out of water pumps, Finlay called her warehouse “begging” for more. A rush delivery of eight pumps was brought to the store via Greyhound.
By Saturday afternoon, nearly 30 centimetres of water sat in the basement of the Canmore Hotel.
“We know, every year, there’s a chance we’re going to get some,” said manager Michael Little. Staff were prepared for the water and had moved all items to higher shelves before the water leaked in.
Pablo Ferreira, owner and operator of a local restoration company in the town, said he received more than two dozen calls from people in the area with flooding in their homes.
At Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park, water runoff from nearby Mount Rundle rushed out of drainage culverts and eroded trails.
“A lot of rock and a lot of mud has come down,” said Jamie Carpenter, events and marketing supervisor at the centre.
The facility remained open Saturday, but Carpenter said some trails had collapsed and were closed.
“It’s that magic combination of heavy snowpack, late melt and heavy rain,” he said.
The river level in Canmore was coming down and the groundwater was stabilizing by late Saturday afternoon, said Sally Caudill, communications co-ordinator with the Town of Canmore.
Nearly 1,000 sandbags are ready to go. “At this point, there is no need to place them, but we are just making sure that if we need them, we have them at the ready,” she said.
Kyle Fougere, lead meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the Bow River in Canmore and Banff was swollen and sensitive to heavy rainfall.
“The fact that there was a lot of rain earlier in the week, and now we’re getting a lot more rain, makes it a pretty precarious position down there,” Fougere said.
Calgary is downstream of flooded areas and so far the city seems to be escaping any serious problems. As a precaution, city officials have lowered water levels in the Glenmore Reservoir by releasing water downstream. However, planning engineer Twyla Hutchison said they don’t expect to have to make any further changes to the outflow at this time. The risk of surface flooding on the Bow River in Calgary is also minimal.
“It’s really hitting the mountains and north of us, but so far we’re not expecting anything significant in the city,” Hutchison said.
Officials continue to monitor river levels around the clock, and watch the amount of precipitation in the mountains as well as within city limits.
Showers were forecast for Calgary overnight Saturday and heavy rainfall warnings remain in effect for many areas outside the city, including Kananaskis Country, Canmore, Airdrie, Cochrane, Olds, Sundre, Banff, Jasper, Nordegg, Hinton and Grande Cache. In many of these areas, Environment Canada was forecasting 75 to 100 millimetres of rain to fall before Sunday morning.
The Calgary Fire Department issued a warning Saturday asking boaters to stay off the Bow River due to the danger posed by rushing water and increased debris. The public is also advised to stay off riverbanks, and some pathways within the city’s trails network are currently closed.
Hutchison said residents who live near the river may want to move any lawn furniture or other items that are close to the water, and consider moving their valuables out of their basements.
“Any time we have high (water) levels for a number of days, there is the potential for basement seepage,” Hutchison said.
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