A storm possibly producing a tornado looking south from Sylvan Lake. (rdnewsNOW/Troy Gillard)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

ALERT ENDED

Environment Canada investigating possible tornado near Sylvan Lake

Jul 31, 2019 | 9:00 PM

A series of thunderstorms along the foothills of Alberta Wednesday night has Environment and Climate Change Canada investigating reports of a possible tornado in central Alberta.

Kyle Fougere, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada says the thunderstorms stretched from Okotoks to Edson, where they moved east and produced severe weather for many locations.

“There were reports of toonie to golf ball hail with that storm that went by Sylvan Lake,” says Fougere. “We did have a report of a funnel cloud and we issued a possible tornado alert on that storm. There was a report that it may have produced a tornado which we’re investigating this morning but we have been unable to confirm it thus far with the evidence we’ve received.”

Also from @Troy_Gillard in #SylvanLake… #abstorm pic.twitter.com/W2KqlXPHB8

— Josh Hall-rdnewsNOW 🇨🇦🌈 (@vancan19) August 1, 2019

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Alberta Emergency Alert issued a possible tornado warning at 8:44 p.m. as a rotating severe thunderstorm was possibly producing a tornado about 15 km northwest of Markerville and moving northeastward at 20 km/h.

Communities in the path of the storm included Sylvan Lake, Evarts and Kuusamo. The Alert was later cancelled at 9:25 p.m.

Fougere confirms however, the storm did produce a funnel cloud just west of Sylvan Lake.

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“We did receive photos and video of that funnel cloud,” says Fougere. “Earlier in its life, to the west of that storm, it also produced another funnel cloud we believe, so now we’re investigating, trying to gather reports from people to figure out whether or not a tornado actually was produced by that storm.”

On Thursday, officials with Environment and Climate Change Canada say a funnel cloud with a possible tornado was reported northwest of Markerville at approximately 8:30 p.m.

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Fougere admits the lightening-infused storms may have also brought damages to some areas of central Alberta.

“We did receive a report that there may have been some trees that were shredded by a possible tornado,” says Fougere. “So that’s what we’ll try to investigate today, we’ll try and gets reports to see if anybody had damage from these storms. There were certainly some hail reports that were big enough to produce damage, so we’ll try to see what we can get for reports from that too.”

On Thursday, officials with Environment and Climate Change Canada confirm walnut-sized hail south of Eckville at 7:50 p.m., toonie-sized hail south of Benalto at 8:46 p.m. and golf ball-sized hail at Sylvan Lake at 9:03 p.m.