Good morning. Mark Iype in Edmonton today.
After a hot, dry spring left much of the west scorched by a record-breaking early wildfire season, many hoped summer would be better.
Well, July had other plans. The month started off with a roar, when a Canada Day tornado ripped through Central Alberta, destroying homes and injuring one person, who had to be pulled from the wreckage of her house. Photos from the scene show a trail of destruction, including splintered buildings and crushed cars.
Miraculously, nobody was killed in the storm, which experts say was one of the most powerful the country has ever seen.
Initial analysis of the damage left in the tornado’s wake showed wind speeds reached a maximum of 275 kilometres an hour, making it an EF4 tornado, based on the Enhanced Fujita severity scale. In one instance, the twister was strong enough to toss a farmer’s 10,000-kilogram combine about 50 metres.
“It was a bit breathtaking to see this big piece of equipment just be reduced to a giant ball of metal,” said Connell Miller, with the Prairie and Arctic Storm Prediction Centre, part of Environment and Climate Change Canada.
As The Globe and Mail’s Ivan Semeniuk and Ana Pereira reported, the storm was a rarity. Since 1902, only 20 other tornadoes are known to have reached a comparable strength anywhere in the country. Last weekend’s was the strongest in Alberta since 1987, when the “Black Friday Tornado” in Edmonton killed 27 people. Only one Canadian tornado has been classified as an EF5. That one was in Elie, Man., in 2007.
While most Canadians are now hoping for a bit of respite from wild weather, federal officials said this week that wildfires stoked by drought and scorching temperatures are expected to pose a danger for the rest of the summer.
The forecast, released Thursday, came as Canadians from coast to coast to coast sweltered under a bout of intense heat and weather warnings.
“This is going to be a long, tough summer,” said Michael Norton, director general of the federal Canadian Forest Service’s Northern Forestry Centre. “It is anticipated that many parts of Canada will continue to see above-normal fire activity.”
As of July 5, wildfires had burned 8.8 million hectares in Canada, 11 times the 10-year average for this point in the summer, The Globe’s Lindsay Jones reported.
In Alberta, the threat of wildfires remains high, but drought may be a more immediate concern, especially for farmers. A lack of rain during the growing season has been hampering crops, with the south, central and northern parts of the Peace region remaining especially dry.
Alberta’s Department of Agriculture and Irrigation, in a June 28 report, noted there are several pockets in the southern Peace region experiencing once-in-50-year moisture lows, while the western and northern parts of the region have been hit with once-in-12-to-25-year lows.
Everybody wants great summer weather, especially as the Calgary Stampede kicks off, but some rain couldn’t hurt.
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.
Wendy Cox