has been issued for parts of central and southeastern Alberta on Friday, June 13, and people living across much of the area are being urged to keep an eye on the sky.According to Global News, Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued a series of severe thunderstorm watches for a large area of central Alberta stretching from just south of Hinton, through Edmonton, to the Montana border in the southeast.
Canada’s national weather agency said thunderstorms are developing over the Alberta foothills and are set to move to the northeast through the afternoon and evening. Some of them are predicted to be severe enough to produce large hail, heavy winds, and heavy rainfall locally.
A special weather statement has also been issued for much of the same area, from Swan Hills in the north to Innisfail in central Alberta. In the statement, a warning has been issued stating that the conditions are also favourable for the development of funnel clouds.
According to the statement, in some cases, the funnel clouds could intensify enough to become weak landspout tornadoes.
Landspout tornadoes don’t normally cause significant damage; however,
Environment Canada has warned that they can still be dangerous and strong enough to topple trees, damage roofs, and toss debris short distances.
Advice for residents
Residents are being advised to treat the sighting of any funnel cloud seriously and seek shelter, Global News reported. The Alberta Hail Suppression Project has launched several aircraft to seed the clouds with silver iodide to help reduce the severity of any hailstorms.
This comes as the weather radar already shows some storms already developing. Environment Canada stated that the thunderstorms will probably weaken late Friday evening.
