Tornado watch lifted for parts of Alberta

EDMONTON - Environment Canada has ended a tornado watch that extended from Leduc to Red Deer and lasted through late afternoon and early evening.

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.

That type of tornado is smaller and less of a safety risk than what was seen earlier in the week in southern Alberta, as Saturday’s were not fuelled by warmer temperatures.

“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,” Fougere said.

“These are much weaker thunderstorms that we have today. In most cases like this, we don’t have the funnel clouds reaching the ground.”

Residents in Stettler reported dark skies and thunderstorms, but no damaging weather in the town itself.

Later in the afternoon, there were reports of one tornado touching down near Red Deer and another southeast of Edmonton, said John McIntyre of Environment Canada. Again, there were no reports of injuries.

Heavy rain fall warnings were issued for much of western Alberta, from Grande Cache to Canmore.

Earlier in the day, Environment Canada said conditions were favourable for the development of funnel clouds or weak tornadoes in parts of the province.

The areas put under a tornado watch included: Leduc, Camrose, Wetaskiwin, Drayton Valley, Devon, Rimbey, Pigeon Lake, Red Deer, Ponoka, Innisfail, Stettler, Airdrie, Cochrane, Olds, and Sundre.

According to Environment Canada, the types of funnel clouds that ad the potential of forming normally appear with little or no warning. While they typically do not have the strength to reach the ground, one or two of them can briefly touch down and can become destructive over a very small area.

Should a funnel cloud or tornado develop, people should take shelter until it dissipates.

For more information, you can visit the Environment Canada website, which shows a number of other areas under a severe thunderstorm warning