By CHAT News Today

Hurricane force winds present in Tuesday’s wind storm

Oct 18, 2017 | 5:57 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A clear picture has emerged about the power of the windstorm which made its way through Alberta and Saskatchewan on Tuesday.

Many communities recorded peak wind gusts in excess of 100 kilometres/hour during the wind storm, with hurricane force winds recorded in some communities.

Medicine Hat was one of the communities with the lowest wind speed, according to Environment Canada. The highest wind gust was recorded at 102 kilometres per hour.

The highest wind gust? Schuler, where 131 km/hour gusts were reported.

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For perspective, Environment Canada classes winds gusts of 118 km and up as hurricane force winds.

Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says the winds were caused by an intense low pressure system and a cold front that formed over the Rocky Mountains.

He says while wind events like Tuesday’s are rare, they can happen.

“We often times get those lows coming through in the early to mid-fall or early winter where we get these strong temperature contrasts between the warm air and the cold air,” he said. “The  baroclinicity…is very, very significant, and that provides the energy available to let these storms develop, especially with the storms in low-pressure centres, and we start seeing those strong wind sdeveloping.

Baroclinicity is the state of the atmosphere in which surfaces of constant pressure are intersected by surfaces of constant temperature or density.

Proctor says the current system has moved through Alberta and Saskatchewan, and is now in Manitoba.