A severe thunderstorm on Wednesday downed power lines, damaged cars and caused power outages in southeastern Alberta.
Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning on Wednesday just after 5 p.m. for south-central Alberta, informing the public that meteorologists were tracking a dangerous thunderstorm capable of producing baseball-sized hail, damaging wind and heavy rain.
The storm was located, at that time, west of Brooks, Alta., and heading east. Environment Canada later reported that it travelled into Vulcan County and Newell County in southeastern Alberta.
The storm travelled over Brooks around 5:30 p.m., which RCMP said resulted in downed power lines, road closures and disabled cars on the road in the area. After Brooks, the storm moved southeast into Cypress County and toward Saskatchewan.
Just after 7 p.m., RCMP said east and westbound lanes of Highway 36 at Highway 1 were not passable. Police also asked drivers not to travel south on Highway 36 to Highway 1 as it was also not passable. Police added that drivers in the area should check 511 Alberta for updates about road closures.
Fortis Alberta said Wednesday evening that its crews were responding to a number of power outages in the southern parts of its service territory due to the storm.
Wednesday’s storm was recorded as travelling more than 500 kilometres, said freelance climate journalist Kyle Brittain.
The storm began around 2:30 p.m. in the foothills west of High River, Alta., and by 9 p.m. it had travelled well into Saskatchewan, south of Saskatoon. Such long-travelling thunderstorms on the Prairies are created through unstable air and strong winds, Brittain said.
“They’re not unheard of, but to see it go this distance at this speed is quite rare,” he noted.
Brittain said the storm uprooted trees and damaged some high-voltage transmission towers along the Highway 36 corridor near Highway 1.
Brittain said he’s seen transmission towers crumpled like this from a blizzard due to accumulating heavy snow and ice, but it otherwise requires much stronger winds for these towers to buckle.
“In order to crumple or shear off these transmission towers, you need incredibly intense winds,” he said, adding that the winds in Wednesday’s storm were recorded to be blowing at more than 110 km/h.
Damaging winds and large hail were still a risk for communities in Saskatchewan as of Wednesday night, Brittain said.
