Calgary clears up storm debris with more volatile weather expected
Posted Jun 30, 2023 6:53 pm.
Last Updated Jun 30, 2023 7:02 pm.
Cleanup is underway after Calgary was hit with a sudden and powerful thunderstorm, but we’re not out of the woods yet as the city prepares for more volatile weather.
Thursday evening’s thunderstorm hit the city quickly, and within half an hour, rain and hail prompted flash floods, putting some areas underwater.
Crews spent the day cleaning up, with the city saying they had seen a higher-than-usual number of trees struck by lightning.
Sarah Hoffman, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change (ECCC), says there was an extreme number of lightning strikes in Calgary.
“Within a 50 km radius with this storm over Calgary, we recorded 912 lightning strikes,” she explained.
SOUND ON:
Lightning hits several buildings in downtown Calgary…including a close one!#yyc #abstorm #Shockwave pic.twitter.com/3OFDzTuGjm
— Kyle Brittain (@BadWeatherKyle) June 30, 2023
The overall impact of Thursday’s storm was minimal, but storm season isn’t over, as the city is set to see more wild weather.
“I’m expecting both Friday night and again Saturday evening to be potentially the worst,” said CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss.
“You could put a watch out every day this week and probably through the day tomorrow just to let people know the possibility is there.”
WATCH: Severe thunderstorm stirs chaos in Calgary
Calgary also remains under a heat warning as temperatures near or above 29 C combined with overnight lows near 14 C continue.
Hoffman says there has been a stable pattern with the weather, but cool air moving in from the west is “destabilizing the air mass over us.” She, like Kuss, expects more thunderstorms on the way.
“We are expecting a couple of days in a row here of the possibility of some severe thunderstorms affecting the majority of Alberta,” she said.
“It’s basically down to pretty normal summertime weather for us. Alberta and the prairies, in general, is no stranger to thunderstorms, and this can happen, especially at this time of year.”
Meanwhile, Thursday’s storm came with so much power that it completely uprooted trees.
A tree uprooted after a thunderstorm storm in Calgary on Friday, June 30, 2023. (Jillian Code, CityNews image)
A resident that lives in the area on 6 Street and 13 Avenue SW near Lougheed House told CityNews the tree hit a lamp post and, with pure luck, fell away from the street.
Meanwhile, for some, the debris was an opportunity for some to get a pew piece of décor.
“We saw the tree fall down yesterday, and we just thought that grabbing a piece of log would be nice as a decoration piece for our house,” Andy Nguyen told CityNews.
Andy Nguyen holds a piece of wood that came from an uprooted tree in Calgary on Friday, June 30, 2023. (Jillian Code, CityNews image)
He says he is going to put the piece on his balcony.
Meanwhile, with more storms on the horizon, it’s best to be aware of the forecast and to keep your eye on the sky.
If big puffy cumulus clouds start to grow and turn grey, it’s time to get to safety.
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“It’s an important reminder that if you can hear thunder, you are within striking distance of lighting, and it’s time to get inside into a well-constructed building or vehicle,” Hoffman said.
ECCC explains that severe thunderstorm watches are issued when atmospheric conditions are favourable for the development of thunderstorms that could produce one or more of the following: large hail, damaging winds, and torrential rainfall.
-With files from Tiffany Goodwein and Lauryn Heintz
