Tornado north of Calgary was one of most powerful in Alberta history: researchers

A devastating tornado that destroyed homes and killed livestock in central Alberta Saturday is now being described as one of the most powerful in Alberta’s history.

Researchers from the Northern Tornadoes Project, together with Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Arctic Storm Prediction Centre, say a thorough ground and drone survey collected enough evidence to rate the tornado damage at EF4, with a maximum wind speed of 275 km/h.

They add that 12 residences were hit by the tornado – three of which were destroyed, four were left uninhabitable, and five more were damaged.

One of the homes that was destroyed was found by the researchers to be well built following an on-site engineering analysis, the groups explained.

Various farm equipment was flipped and thrown at a home that was completely collapsed, including a combine weighing almost 10,000 kg that was thrown at least 50 metres and then rolled another 50 to 100 metres after that.

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There was only one minor injury connected to the twister, which the organizations attribute to timely weather alerts.

The Didsbury tornado is now the strongest recorded tornado in Alberta since the 1987 F4 Edmonton tornado and one of just three tornados rated as F/EF4 in Alberta.

The other hit the Grassy Lake area in 1915.

It is also only the second tornado in Canada to have damage rated at F4 on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale that was put into place in 2013. The other was the tornado in Alonsa, Man., that also had a maximum wind speed of 275 km/h.

There have only been 21 “violent” tornados rated at EF4 or higher.

“Though this was a climatologically significant tornado, it thankfully won’t enter the list of Canada’s top ten ‘worst’ tornados due to the single minor injury and limited property damage,” the agencies said.