Canada's first tornado of 2025 touches down in southern Alberta

Brendan Coulter · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 14, 2025 4:49 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

An aboriginal play tornado touched down astir 175 kilometres southeast of Calgary connected Saturday.

It's the first tornado recorded successful Canada in 2025, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

It was spotted successful a farmer's tract about 10 kilometres northbound of Rolling Hills, Alta.

"I couldn't judge what I was seeing, and I was shocked to spot a tornado truthful aboriginal successful the spring," said Darby Lester, an country nonmigratory who saw the tornado from her farm, successful a voicemail sent to CBC News. 

"No, I wasn't scared. It was acold capable distant and seemed beauteous weak, and it wasn't getting immoderate bigger."

Environment Canada has fixed it a preliminary standing of EF-0 — the weakest standing connected the standard it uses to complaint tornado intensity.

No harm has been reported arsenic of Monday, according to bureau meteorologist Justin Shelley, but the twister marks the earliest commencement to Alberta's tornado play since astatine slightest 1980.

"May, June, July and sometimes stretching into August is benignant of the highest play for tornadoes," helium said. 

But Shelley added that an aboriginal play tornado doesn't mean Alberta volition spot a peculiarly aggravated twelvemonth for twisters, noting it "doesn't truly constituent to what we tin expect later."

Environment Canada is calling it a landspout tornado, usually caused by anemic rotation nether rapidly increasing clouds oregon anemic thunderstorms.

Landspout tornadoes are usually weaker than supercell tornadoes, according to the authorities agency, and tin beryllium whipped up by comparatively benign conditions, but they tin inactive topple trees, harm roofs oregon flip debris. 

A increasing fig of landspout tornadoes person occurred crossed confederate Alberta successful caller years, said Shelley.

The Northern Tornadoes Project, which tracks and investigates the harm tornadoes origin crossed the country, said landspouts typically don't question far, and make astatine the opening stages of a thunderstorm.

"They're besides precise hard to foretell and to pass for, due to the fact that they don't amusement up connected radar," said Dave Sills, manager of the organization.

"Typically, the lone mode we cognize that they hap is idiosyncratic takes a photograph oregon a video and shows us."

Researchers are getting amended astatine forecasting the much unsafe supercell tornadoes, Stills said, but the conditions that make landspout tornadoes hap reasonably randomly, and landspout tornadoes apt spell underreported due to the fact that they often don't origin overmuch damage.

Still, each tornado is dangerous, and radical should instrumentality screen if they spot 1 nearby, said Stills. 

"I get a small tense with radical seeing them and walking person to them," helium said.

"There's truthful galore radical that nonstop america a video [saying] 'hey, I conscionable saw this tornado.' And you tin spot they're taking the video arsenic it's getting person and person to them, and they're not stopping."

Environment Canada is asking anyone with photos oregon videos of the tornado that occurred connected Saturday, oregon immoderate harm it caused, to station them online oregon nonstop them successful by email.

The Northern Tornadoes Project said nary harm survey probe is planned.