A tornado touched down north of Falher, Alberta, Monday evening, locals say.
Brad Drouin told CTV News Edmonton he was on the road when he saw the tornado forming over the town of Falher and, a few minutes later, touch down somewhere north of the community of 1,000.
ATCO attributed a power outage in Girouxville, another small community west of Falher, to a tornado touchdown.
Falher and Girouxville are located about 2 hours East of Dawson Creek, along Highway 49. Both communities are part of the Peace River region.
Fire officials say no serious injuries were reported during the storm, but significant property damage was reported, particularly on the east side of Falher.
Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen also shared pictures of storm damage.
“It started on the eastern side of the village of Girouxville, made its way through town, and then went back up into the clouds, and it continued there. It touched down just outside of Falher, and then it headed on an easterly path towards High Prairie,” said Marcel Maure, the Smoky River municipal district’s fire chief and director of emergency management, in an interview Tuesday.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and the Northern Tornadoes Project out of Western University have confirmed at least one tornado in the Peace River region, but as Tuesday morning, could not confirm when and where the tornado touched down, or provide a rating.
A team is being sent to investigate.
ECCC says the storm started as rain before developing into a super cell that tracked southeast from the Peace River region toward High Prairie.
Residents say there was little to no warning before seeing the spiral in the sky Monday evening.
ECCC says a tornado warning was not issued because the storm developed quickly and did not show the typical tornado-producing features.
Instead, the agency issued a thunderstorm warning shortly before 9:30 p.m.
Alberta is experiencing a more active tornado season than usual. Environment Canada says the province usually records about 15 tornados in a year, but 10 have already been reported this spring.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg and Alex Antoneshyn