Yesterday, Airdronians saw a weird-looking cloud northeast of the city in the sky around 5 p.m. and questions arose about what it could be.
While there were a few different guesses, multiple residents believed it was a cold core funnel. Environment and Climate Change Canada Meteorologist Brian Proctor was able to explain exactly what it was.
"It looks like there were cold core funnels in the area and with the weather conditions, we expected that yesterday that they could occur."
Proctor explained that cold core funnels form beneath showers or weak thunderstorms when the air above it is colder compared to the air below it.
"They don't typically make it all the way to the ground, they tend to cause very little damage and if they do touch down, we typically rate them as an EF zero."
The EF (Enhanced Fujita) scale is used to assign a tornado a 'rating' based on estimated wind speeds and related damage. It is a six-point scale, with zero being the lowest and five being the highest. An EF zero rating could see wind speeds of up to 135 kilometres per hour, which is the lowest rating.
"We've received no reports of anything touching down in the area."
Proctor stated the Airdrie area is very likely to see cold core funnels with the current weather conditions and being so close to the Rockies.
When asked how many tornados, land spouts, and cold core funnels Alberta has seen so far, he was unable to provide a number as they are currently trying to keep track of everything that is happening and specific requirements have to be met for them to be classified as tornados, land spouts or cold core funnels.
The Airdrie area has seen one tornado already this year, At the end of April, an Airdronian captured it on video about five minutes east of Airdrie near Range Road 282.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, it was a landspout tornado with an EF zero rating.
The forecasted weekend weather will look a lot like what we have seen this week. Saturday and Sunday will see a partly cloudy sky, a chance of rain and thunderstorms with the daytime highs around 14 degrees.
Come next week the colder temperatures are supposed to let up and the spring warm weather will move back in.
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