On Friday, Environment Canada counted three tornado touchdowns in northern Alberta in as many hours.
The touchdowns were recorded near Cold Lake, Lac La Biche and Slave Lake.
The first touchdown was recorded 15 kilometres east of Lac La Biche, at 5:45 p.m. The government department also received reports of 29-milimetre sized hail.
An hour later, at 6:45 p.m., a second tornado was reported 20 kilometres southeast of Slave Lake, near the Smith turnoff.
The third was classified as a waterspout that moved over Cold Lake, near North Bay, and which dissipated about 10 minutes after it formed at 8:26 p.m.
“It’s definitely coming right at us,” Cold Lake cottager Ryan Baldwin remembers thinking as the waterspout moved across Cold Lake.
“It must have been 200 feet high and it was pretty wide,” he estimated in an interview with CTV News Edmonton on Saturday.
“It only took about maybe 90 seconds for the sky to start spinning and then it just came down pretty quick. And it was the biggest one I've ever seen,” he said.
“I haven’t seen too many though, but it was huge.”
A few houses down, Danielle Schreiner was concerned about finding shelter if the storm moved closer.
“It was kind of just like a frozen moment where it was like a train wreck: We couldn't look away, we just kind of kept watching,” she recalled.
“We could have crawled under the cabin but we were saying if the cabin collapses, that's not going to be much better.”
Baldwin added, “Eighty foot trees looked like they were pulled out like toothpicks.”
All three confirmed tornadoes were rated at EF0 intensities, with estimated wind speeds between 105 and 137 km/h.
No significant damage or injuries were reported as a result of them.
A possible fourth tornado was recorded near Thorchild, after Environment and Climate Change Canada received reports of a funnel cloud.
Severe thunderstorm alerts were issued Saturday afternoon for an eastern section of the province, from Bonnyville south to Provost.
With files from Amanda Anderson
