Environment and Climate Change Canada said the twister tore a path of destruction Saturday afternoon between the towns of Carstairs and Didsbury.
Officials vary in their estimate of homes damaged, ranging from nine to 14, with a handful completely flattened. No one was seriously hurt in the storm, although a woman was found trapped in her basement after the tornado destroyed her house as she was beneath it.
On Monday, the Northern Tornadoes Project surveyed the damage. It’s a Western University unit focused on understanding tornadoes in Canada.
“Obviously, this was a very significant event,” said Connell Miller, a survey lead with the group. He spoke Monday with Loren McGinnis on the Calgary Eyeopener.
Calgary Eyeopener7:26Mountain View County tornado
A powerful tornado destroyed homes north of Calgary over the weekend. We chat with a researcher surveying the damage.
Based on what he’s seen on the ground, Miller said the weekend tornado was likely more powerful than EF-2, categorized on the enhanced Fujita scale by wind speeds of 178 to 217 km/h.
According to Miller, roughly 95 per cent of tornadoes that touch down in Canada are rated EF-2 or less. He described these as “less severe,” although they are still powerful enough to topple trees or blow off a home’s roof.
The tornado that tore through Mountain View County on Saturday was more powerful than these, according to Miller.
“This tornado will definitely fall within that five per cent of tornadoes that are stronger than [EF-2],” he said. “Just where exactly that will fall is still to be determined.”
Miller, an engineering researcher, says his team determines the strength of a tornado by looking at the structure of the homes destroyed and figuring out how powerful the winds would need to be to topple the buildings.
Miller said his team will likely have a rating for the tornado by Tuesday morning. Should it be rated an EF-3, that would mean the winds were between 218 and 266 km/h. If an EF-4, the winds would have ranged between 267 and 322 km/h.
One of the houses destroyed in the storm belonged to Elisa Humphreys. She fled with her dog and cat just moments before her home was blown to pieces. She described the wreckage as looking like an airplane crash.
“What it is, is the total destruction of two homes that have just been shredded and spread everywhere,” she said.
Dozens of people in the local community have turned out over the past few days to help clean up the debris, which included machinery that was thrown from one property to another and large trees uprooted and downed.
Lance Douglas, of Olds, helped organize the ongoing cleanup efforts. He was driving home from Calgary with this son on Saturday when they saw the tornado’s aftermath.
“We were driving by on the highway and saw the devastation,” he said. “We knew the Alberta way is that you just go and help.”
Douglas helped start a Facebook group to organize cleanup efforts, reaching out to the property owners to understand their needs and if they wanted volunteers on their land.
“Everyone’s really happy to have volunteers that are coming out and helping, even those that didn’t [initially] want people on their farm further contacted us, and we’ve been able to send volunteers there, trucks and tools,” Douglas said.
A barbecue on Monday was held to show appreciation to the volunteers. Over the next few days, Douglas said, their efforts will be focused on moving gathered debris to the dump and bringing in large machinery to removed downed trees.
“There’s still miles of work yet to do,” he said.
Damage can be seen near Elisa Humphreys’ home. (Helen Pike/CBC)
Tornadoes in Canada
According to Miller, one of the reasons the Northern Tornadoes Project was founded was to get a better sense of the tornado climatology in Canada.
While official meteorological records indicated around 60 to 70 tornadoes a year in Canada, models suggested the figure should be significantly higher.
The reason the official figure is low, Miller said, is likely a matter of population density. Every year, a number of tornadoes touch down in areas where no one lives — and therefore aren’t reported.
“Since we’ve been founded in 2017, we’ve found that that [tornado] average is closer to 100 to 120 per year,” Miller said.
Terri Lang, a Saskatoon-based meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the tornado came out of a supercell thunderstorm.
“Supercell thunderstorms are the types of thunderstorms that form in very specific conditions,” she said. “These storms form their own environment, and they can last a very, very long time. They kind of feed on themselves, and they can travel hundreds of kilometres, producing all types of severe weather.”
Saturday’s intense heat was a factor — such warmth is required to produce a supercell. But for the formation of a tornado, the key factor is wind shear, with wind changing direction and/or speed over a short distance.
“That allows the storm to spin,” Lang said. “Once the storm is spinning, it’s capable of producing a tornado.”
The Yukon government says groundwater samples at the site where a mine’s ore containment facility failed in June “continue to reveal high levels of cyanide.”
In a written update, the Yukon government says tests from Dublin Gulch below the slide at the Eagle Gold mine also show metals such as cobalt, copper, mercury, nickel, silver and selenium in the groundwater.
While the government says the form of mercury found in the groundwater “has low potential for accumulating in the tissues of fish and wildlife,” it says the tests do show that more action is needed to protect the environment near the mine.
Those protections include several planned groundwater interception wells below a safety berm that is now 30 per cent complete, and the statement says work on three of the wells has already begun.
The ore containment facility failure in June caused millions of tonnes of cyanide-contaminated rock to escape.
Mine owner Victoria Gold is in receivership, but the Yukon government says it is in regular communication with the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun situated downstream and current mercury levels in nearby Haggart Creek “do not pose a heightened risk” to residents’ health.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.
British Columbia voters are heading to the polls, and political podcast co-host Mike McDonald says he is watching five ridings as bellwethers.
Here are the five ridings he’s watching as indicators of whether the NDP or the B.C. Conservatives will form government, and why:
Nanaimo-Lantzville
McDonald says one of the key factors in determining bellwethers is a history of centre-right support in places that swung to the NDP in 2020.
Nanaimo-Lantzville is a new riding, carved mostly out of Nanaimo and Parksville-Qualicum, both of which went to the NDP in 2020.
McDonald says Parksville-Qualicum in particular had been held by the BC Liberals since 1996 until Adam Walker’s victory for the NDP in 2020. But Walker has since been removed from the NDP caucus and is running for re-election as an Independent.
Meanwhile, the B.C. Conservatives are running Gwen O’Mahony, another former NDP MLA, who represented Chilliwack-Hope from 2012 to 2013.
North Vancouver-Seymour
This Metro Vancouver riding had been BC Liberal territory from 1991 to 2020, when Susie Chant became the first New Democrat to win there since 1972.
McDonald says while the riding had been held for decades by the BC Liberals, the centre-right margin of victory had been diminishing from 32 percentage points in 2009 before it ultimately flipped to the NDP.
He says the heavily urban riding is “not a great fit” for the B.C. Conservatives’ and their rural lean but it may still swing right if the momentum for change carries into Metro Vancouver.
Surrey-Cloverdale
This is a rare riding where two sitting MLAs will battle for a place in the next legislature.
NDP incumbent Mike Starchuk won the riding in 2020 with 52 per cent of the vote, but it had previously been staunch BC Liberal turf, all the way back to 1991 when the riding was created.
Starchuk faces one of the highest-profile candidates on the B.C. Conservative slate: Elenore Sturko, the MLA for Surrey South who won that riding as a star candidate for BC United. But she defected to the Conservatives this year to run in Surrey-Cloverdale.
McDonald says this may be the front line between B.C. Conservative support in the Fraser Valley and the NDP’s base in urban areas, the so-called “orange wall.”
Langley-Willowbrook
McDonald calls this another “orange wall” riding.
He says the newly created riding has experienced demographic changes spurred by urban families spreading out in search of affordability, making it “kind of an NDP place.”
Incumbent New Democrat Andrew Mercier won in 2020 with 47 per cent of the vote when the riding was known as Langley. The new riding comprises mostly of that seat that had gone to BC Liberal or Social Credit candidates in every previous election back to 1966.
Maple Ridge East
This riding has sided with the party that formed government in every provincial election since 2001.
It is held by the NDP’s Bob D’Eith while the Conservatives are running political newcomer Lawrence Mok.
McDonald notes that every riding he has chosen as a bellwether includes a Green party candidate. He says the Greens have seen some momentum as the NDP shifts to the centre in response to the Conservatives on policies such as the carbon tax and involuntary care.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.
HALIFAX – Results of the Halifax municipal election are expected to be known tonight as voters head to the polls to choose their next mayor.
Frontrunners for the mayor’s chair include former Liberal MP Andy Fillmore — who recently resigned from his seat in Parliament — and current Halifaxcouncillor Waye Mason.
They are among 16 candidates in the Halifax Regional Municipality mayoral race, where top campaign issues have been housing, affordability and accessibility.
About a quarter of voters in the municipality cast their ballots in advance polls.
Outgoing Halifax Mayor Mike Savage announced in February that he would not seek another mandate, and on Sunday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointd him to be Nova Scotia’s next lieutenant-governor.
Electors in 48 of Nova Scotia’s 49 municipalities will cast ballots today, except in the town of Mulgrave, where the mayor and four councillors have been acclaimed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.
