Why is the northeast being hit with extreme weather?

A rare tornado warning for the City of Calgary targeting the North East, still recovering from last months devastating hailstorms, putting already frayed nerves back on edge.

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – It’s been a month of crazy weather for those living in the north end of Calgary.

Some ominous clouds formed over northeast Calgary Sunday night, before a tornado warning was briefly issued.

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That comes just weeks after a hail storm devastated the northeast on June 13, ripping apart siding and flooding a portion of Deerfoot Trail.

So what’s the deal with the extreme weather in these parts of Calgary?

Blaine Lowry is a Warning Preparedness Meteorologist with Environment Canada and said there’s no clear explanation to the weather other than a case of bad luck.

“Historically, we’ve had severe and damaging hailstorms that roll in off the foothills, basically right along Highway 1 or through the Cochrane area and enter the city through the west. Likewise, we’ve had storms that form north of the city and move southeast towards the city. In which case, the north end and the northeast end of the city would be impacted.”

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Lowry added severe storms are common at this time of the year, especially those that can produce tornadoes.

“We don’t have to look back even a month to see the last funnel cloud reported in the City of Calgary. On June 13, the day of that unfortunate hailstorm, there was a funnel cloud reported in the city. That can be a common occurrence.”

That was the case for Sunday night as a dangerous storm prompted a tornado alert sent through the emergency alert system. The initial alert was issued for northeast Calgary and areas east of the city including Chestermere.

While the Calgary alert was cancelled in a matter of minutes, some were left wondering why they received an alert if they weren’t in the affected area.
“The City of Calgary is one warning region and therefore if a warning goes out for a certain part of the city, it will go out for the entire city,” said Lowry who added the alerts will explain which region of the city is most at risk.

There were no reports of a tornado touching down following the warning on Sunday night.

 

– With files from CityNews

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