Canada’s first tornado of 2025 spotted in southern Alberta

Canada’s first tornado of 2025 happened right near a small hamlet in southern Alberta Saturday.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed in its weather summary that the tornado formed 10 kilometres northwest of Rolling Hills, over two hours southeast of Calgary, at 5:20 p.m.

While the weather agency received multiple reports and photos, the tornado lasted briefly with no reports of damage.

Several photos of the occasion came from Bantry Seed Farms, a third-generation family business owned by Derek Virostek. The farm is about seven minutes north of Rolling Hills.

660 NewsRadio Meteorologist Kevin Stanfield says it’s classified as a landspout tornado, which can form when a storm is still forming.

“So as that snowstorm was pushing its way along this formation zone, right along this barrier where air is being kicked up into these massive clouds … you’ve got all this moisture, you’ve got these massive clouds, you’ve got enough rotation at the surface, and it helps pull some of that rotation up into the cloud, and before you know, you’ve got a landspout tornado,” he said.

He says while it was classified with an EF-0 rating, it means, “they’re going to kick dust around.”

“They’re not necessarily all that threatening to people, not that you want to walk into one, but all the same, they can generally cause at most minor damage,” Stanfield said.

And while that area has lots of interesting weather due to the topography, this tornado was a “rare occurrence.”

“It’s more likely we see additional snow and less likely we see another tornado. This was pretty out of character for Mother Nature,” Stanfield said.

With files from Nadia Moharib