10 tornadoes struck Alberta during thunderstorm, Environment Canada says
Environment Canada says tornadoes were reported in multiple locations across the province
Alberta was hit by ten tornadoes Wednesday, Environment and Climate Change Canada said Thursday.
The organization worked with Western University's Northern Tornadoes Project to determine what transpired yesterday — the initial findings suggested that the tornadoes were relatively small in nature and only caused "minor damage."
Researchers found that the tornadoes were reported in multiple locations across the province between 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. The affected areas included:
- Iron Springs
- Enchant
- Lake Newall
- Brooks
- Cabin Lake
- Vermilion
According to the report, "loonie to toonie sized hail" was also observed in a few locations close to Enchant.
Weather expert and freelance journalist Kyle Brittain counted eight tornadoes and said that he has never spotted so many tornadoes in a single day before.
He also shed some light on what's causing the tornadoes in the first place.
"The reason why they're happening is we have some unstable air and air is really strongly converging along an axis across southern Alberta where we've got strong northerly winds on the north side and strong southwesterly winds on the southern side of this boundary," he said.
"So where you have those winds coming together, you get these little pockets of swirling air, you get a thunderstorm updraft developing on top of that and it can spin it up into a tornado."