Northeast Alberta experienced severe thunderstorms on June 29, causing damage on at least three farms north of Bonnyville.
Judy Cabay of Triple T Greenery north of Bonnyville reported damage on her property. Two small sheds were knocked over and the plastic roof covering one empty greenhouse, which was secured by a heavy metal pole, was ripped off, with the pole landing on another greenhouse.
“My house was still standing. That's the main thing. We can always fix stuff and plant another tree, but its pretty hard to build another house,” she said.
She estimated 300 feet of mesh fence covered with black plastic was ripped out of the ground. The fence posts were buried three feet in the ground. The fence was deposited on the other side of another fence in a field. Several trees on Cabay's property were also damaged by the winds.
Cabay's neighbour to the north, Alex Shmyr also reported wind damage. Strong winds toppled an empty 2000-bushel capacity granary and flipped over a calf shelter. He estimated that the winds had broken around 25 trees on his property.
Another farmer northeast of Bonnyville reported that two empty fuel tanks picked up by the wind had damaged a granary.
Blair Morrow, meteorologist for Environment Canada, said the damage could have been caused by strong upper level winds or wind gusts. Winds were as high as 90 km per hour.
Environment Canada received reports of funnel clouds and large size hail but did not confirm any tornados. Morrow said the strong gust front could have been caused by the severe thunderstorms.
