A tornado that touched down near a Central Alberta community damaged one home Monday afternoon.
The family was not there at about 3 p.m. when the tornado struck the house, located just north of the village of Edberg. Fierce winds caused the awning roof to collapse, and the tall television antenna tower was bent down to the ground.
Camrose MLA Jackie Lovely, who encountered a massive hail storm while travelling west of the area, said she was alerted by Premier Danielle Smith that a tornado had touched down near Edberg so the MLA went to the village, located south of Camrose.
When she arrived, fire department officials told her about the damaged property. Lovely knew the family who showed her what happened.
"It hit the house. Shingles were blown off and it smashed some of the windows," Lovely said.
She said the tornado also beat up a lot of mature trees, and a door blew off a Quonset.
"That's completely missing. They're not sure where it ended up."
Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a tornado watch on Monday for a large area stretching from south and east of Edmonton to the Saskatchewan border.
Conditions were favourable for the development of funnel clouds and maybe brief, weak tornadoes.
Alysa Pederson, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said a small thunderstorm southeast of Edmonton grew quickly and there was a lot of spin in the atmosphere from a low pressure system. As the thunderstorm grew it dropped the landspout tornado near Edberg.
She said people emailed a lot of storm photos to the department using ABstorm.ec.gc.ca. There were also calls and reports of the tornado on social media.
"We're still looking into that event and what really happened there," Pederson said.
Lovely said she spoke to Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis regarding the concern there was no advance warning about the tornado.
"I was told that they're very unpredictable, so that's why they can't predict when it's going to happen or exactly where."
She said the province will try and provide warnings as best they can, and residents need to stay alert. On Monday, clouds in the area were very strange.
"I think we just need to be very cautious in Central Alberta and keep our eyes open," Lovely said.
Pederson said serious thunderstorm can happen as early as May.
"It starts to ramp up in June, and July of course, is the peak month for severe thunderstorms in Alberta."
