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By Charles Lefebvre

Severe Weather

Environment Canada confirms Thursday tornado in Carmangay; 13th tornado this season

Jul 19, 2019 | 4:56 PM

CARMANGAY, AB — Environment Canada confirmed a tornado touched down in southwestern Alberta on Thursday evening.

According to the agency, the tornado was spotted at approximately 5:20 p.m. roughly 17 minutes of the community of Carmengay, which is located north of Lethbridge.

Environment Canada gave a preliminary rating of 1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, meaning moderate damage occurred. The agency said a garage and shop was destroyed, a bale stacker was tossed approximately 200 metres and a large tree branch was impaled in the wall of a house.

Wind speeds were estimated between 135 kilometres to 175 kilometres per hour.

Dan Kulak, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says the tornado is the 13^th confirmed tornado in Alberta this summer, and they’re investigating four probable tornadoes.

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He says the shifts between cool and warm weather might be causing a more active season.

“Meteorologists would say this is an upper trough kind of weather pattern versus an upper ridge weather pattern,” he said. “The upper ridges tend to give heat, upper troughs tend to give cooler weather, which becomes very unstable with the stronger sunshine we get in the middle of the summer.”

Kulak says Albertans need to keep a close eye on weather this summer, noting it can change quickly. He says many emergency preparedness plans for tornadoes are similar to ones for severe weather events, including going to basements or under stairs.

“If you don’t have any stairs or basement, try to find interior rooms of the building that you’re in that don’t have large spans over top of them,” he said. “Not large gymnasium facilities, but small interior rooms.”