WESTLOCK — Many area residents and business owners now face big clean-up bills after a severe thunderstorm with wind speeds of up to 100 km/h blew through the Westlock area early Tuesday morning, July 25.
Environment and Climate Change Canada has confirmed that a tornado did not touch down in Westlock, but residents did experience what’s known as a “straight-line wind event” that produces extremely high, damaging winds.
“It was a pretty potent system that went across central Alberta last night. We don’t have any confirmation of any tornadoes in the Westlock area,” said Edmonton-based Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) meteorologist Justin Shelley. “However, from what I can see on the radar we had a pretty strong thunderstorm move through the area just after midnight local time and very likely, what happened was something called straight-line winds, where you have an area of very strong winds out ahead and within the thunderstorm area which can produce strong wind gusts.”
He said the radar indicated a pretty wide spread area of at least 80 to 100 km/h winds that moved through the area between midnight and 1 a.m. The high winds caused the power to fail just after 12 a.m. and while some town and county residents were back online within 90 minutes, some in locales like the Hamlet of Pickardville didn’t have power until after 10 a.m.
“A lot of times with these events too, you can have a wider spread area of damage associated with straight-line winds as opposed to a small tornado because what would be covered by the path of a tornado would be relatively small compared to the scale of a large straight line wind event which is likely what we saw last night in that region,” explained Shelley. “So, while it can look like a pretty devastating area of damage, you might think it would have to be a tornado but a lot of times, straight-line wind damage can cause as much or more damage than a weak tornado can.”
Several businesses Tuesday morning were still without power on the northeast side of town including Fountain Tire, which suffered considerable damage.
“Most of our roof blew off. Looks like it took down the power poles and power lines,” said Fountain Tire owner Kevin Bizuns, adding couldn’t believe the level of damage. “I was quite shocked coming into town. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Shane Adam is a mechanic at Fountain Tire and lives in the northwest part of town and described the storm as “nothing like he’s ever experienced.”
“There was so much pressure (on the windows) that I didn’t think they were going to hold,” said Adam. “When it gets that bad you don’t know if your house is going to hold together.”
Town of Westlock fire chief Stuart Koflick said they were kept busy with 12 incidents from just after midnight until 6 a.m., with many being downed trees, with some coming down on power lines, plus a few reports of the smell of natural gas. Koflick did confirm there were no storm-related injuries.
“We were quite busy dealing with the different damage throughout town and doing what we could do, which was looking at and assessing the risk and the hazard and then providing the appropriate information to the appropriate people. We did call in Westlock County for assistance this morning because of the numerous calls coming through,” he said, noting Engine 5 from Pickardville cleared a downed tree across Highway 18 early this morning.
The town issued a statement just before 9 a.m. regarding last night’s storm that resulted in “significant amounts of debris on the roads” and noted that the operations department worked throughout the night. Residents with downed trees or other items can take them to the gravel lot north of the curling rink at the Rotary Spirit Centre at 9603 - 100th Street.
“We encourage all residents to bring any debris from their property to this location, provided it is safe to do so. However, please remember that if the downed trees are near downed power lines, do not attempt to clear the area,” reads the statement.
