Tornado in northern Alberta Canada
Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 12:04 pm
Grande Pairie Alberta is a small city of 40000 480 north and west of Calgary. How far north can tornados develop?
Edmonton - Environment Canada says it was a tornado that ripped through downtown Grande Prairie Thursday, flipping over cars and throwing debris around.
Amateur video of the funnel cloud.
The storm, which rolled through the city about 3:30 p.m., knocked over a power line, ripped shingles from buildings, toppled a traffic light and the bucket from in front of a Kentucky Fried Chicken and started one small fire.
As well, the walls of two buildings collapsed. There were no reports of injuries.
Dick Barendregt was driving his pickup truck when he spotted a funnel-shaped cloud about a block away, heading directly toward him. He grabbed his video camera and filmed the action through his windshield.
"We watched doors and windows and all kinds of debris flying up in the air," he said.
Cora Jantz was standing in the front door of the York Hotel with a co-worker when they spotted the tornado and ran back inside.
Tai Williams was in his office when the storm hit with no advance notice.
"There's no warning system, which is pretty ridiculous," he said.
An Environment Canada weather spotter at Grande Prairie's airport reported a funnel cloud at 3:27 p.m., but a tornado watch advisory didn't go out until 3:45 p.m. – 15 minutes after the twister hit.
The weather office's Dan Kulak says radar showed nothing to prompt a tornado warning, a more serious level of alert than the tornado watch.
"You can't see things like this on radar," he said. "In terms of the rotation, what we could see was a band of very weak showers."
Edmonton - Environment Canada says it was a tornado that ripped through downtown Grande Prairie Thursday, flipping over cars and throwing debris around.
Amateur video of the funnel cloud.
The storm, which rolled through the city about 3:30 p.m., knocked over a power line, ripped shingles from buildings, toppled a traffic light and the bucket from in front of a Kentucky Fried Chicken and started one small fire.
As well, the walls of two buildings collapsed. There were no reports of injuries.
Dick Barendregt was driving his pickup truck when he spotted a funnel-shaped cloud about a block away, heading directly toward him. He grabbed his video camera and filmed the action through his windshield.
"We watched doors and windows and all kinds of debris flying up in the air," he said.
Cora Jantz was standing in the front door of the York Hotel with a co-worker when they spotted the tornado and ran back inside.
Tai Williams was in his office when the storm hit with no advance notice.
"There's no warning system, which is pretty ridiculous," he said.
An Environment Canada weather spotter at Grande Prairie's airport reported a funnel cloud at 3:27 p.m., but a tornado watch advisory didn't go out until 3:45 p.m. – 15 minutes after the twister hit.
The weather office's Dan Kulak says radar showed nothing to prompt a tornado warning, a more serious level of alert than the tornado watch.
"You can't see things like this on radar," he said. "In terms of the rotation, what we could see was a band of very weak showers."
