Alberta storm chasers thrilled by tornado near Sundre

A major storm that rolled through central Alberta Thursday afternoon, was a thrill for Canadian storm chasers.

“It is a bit of an adrenaline, excitement,” Jenny Hagan, severe weather chaser told CityNews. “You see these debris clouds fly up and you know very possibly be somebody’s livelihood is being destroyed in there.”

Hagan got up close and personal with the severe thunderstorm that hit Alberta and Saskatchewan, managing to catch footage of the storm as it was happening.

Since I tagged it wrong #abstorm at sundre at 2:30pm too used to being in Sask pic.twitter.com/kTFKt0kPWS

— Jenny Hagan LostInSk (@LostInSk) July 8, 2022

“Where I was set up it was close to the tornado, but we knew that the tornado was moving away from us,” she explained. “We weren’t in a position where we were going to take a direct hit from that. What I always tell people is if they’re looking at a tornado and it doesn’t look like it’s moving? It’s coming straight for you.”

The RCMP say that the tornado in Sundre damaged five homes. Fortunately, no one was killed.

RELATED: Alberta tornado severely damages homes southeast of Sundre on wild weather day

“We knew that all the ingredients were there yesterday for that, and we knew there could potentially be,” says Nevin DeMilliano, a prairie storm chaser. “We’ve had so much moisture over the last little while, that there could be a potential tornado as well, which ended up happening yesterday.”

DeMilliano says he saw Thursday’s storm coming, as July and August are peak severe storm months.

A landscape view of the tornado that touched down earlier Thursday, July 7, 2022 in Alberta. (Photo: Neville Johnson, Prairie Thunder Storm Chasers)

His advice for anyone spending time outdoors this summer is to have multiple ways to receive weather alerts – like through your TV, phone or radio – and have a safety plan.

“If you’re tenting, or in a trailer, you’re not safe from some of these severe storms, right? You need to have a plan to get to a well-built building that will keep you safe.”

Hagan also posted photos on Twitter of the damage caused by hail in Oyen to properties and cars – and with it being storm season, it’ll be best to take deMilliano’s advice and stay aware of weather alerts.