Bryn Hansen was eating steak and potatoes for dinner with his grandmother Saturday night when they heard a gust of wind, forcing them to hide in the basement.
When they returned to the top, they saw tin swirling in the air as the tornado headed one way and the destruction it caused in the other.
“All the buildings have disappeared. Just destroyed,” Hansen said.
He was grateful Sunday when family and friends visited his grandparents’ house to help with the cleanup. The tornado damaged buildings on their land, including his grandparents’ store, which was destroyed.
“It’s been there my whole life,” Hansen said. “Looking out the window and seeing that he was gone was just crazy.”
Bryn Hansen says he’s grateful to family and friends for rallying to clean up his grandparents’ property after a tornado damaged structures on the land. (Nadir Hashmi/CBC)
On Saturday evening, a tornado moved through parts of central Alberta, particularly through Clearwater County, an area about 210 kilometers southwest of Edmonton.
Environment Canada was monitoring the thunderstorm that produced the tornado. Around 5:20 p.m. ET, the agency issued a red tornado warning, calling the situation “very dangerous and potentially life-threatening” as several communities were in the path of the tornado, including the town of Rocky Mountain House.
The warning was briefly extended to other counties but was lifted completely after nearly three hours. Environment Canada left the area after 9 p.m. due to a yellow warning.
There was “extensive damage” to buildings, homes, trees, roads and other local infrastructure in the area, county officials said. But there were no tornado-related injuries or deaths reported to livestock, according to Clearwater County Supervisor Jordon Northcott.
Rocky Mountain House Mayor Shane Boniface told CBC News other parts of the county appear to have been hit harder than his town. Much of the city’s cleanup on Sunday involved downed trees, discarded trash and knocked-off shingles, he said.
Clearwater County officials say crews are working to clear debris and address immediate safety concerns caused by Saturday’s tornado. (Kevin Sabiston/CBC)
In Clearwater County, the tornado destroyed buildings, damaged homes and toppled trees, according to Police Chief Northcott. He witnessed the “devastation” while driving near Leslieville, Alta.
“That’s when it dawned on me that this was a real disaster,” he said.
The damage caused by the tornado stunned Amanda Olson, who was helping her family assess the damage to her mother-in-law’s property and clean up debris in the backyard, including broken or uprooted trees from decades ago.
“When you actually look at everything, it’s kind of at a loss for words,” Olson told CBC News.
“We’ve lived here for about 15 years, and the fires we’ve had and the memories and sleepovers here… it was a second home, so to lose a part of it is devastating,” she said.
Amanda Olson says she’s grateful for a tornado warning that was issued as the storm approached Clearwater County, Alta., on Saturday. (Kevin Sabiston/CBC)
Olson expressed gratitude for Saturday’s emergency alerts. She said she and her family lived in an RV in the yard but moved after a tornado warning.
“We’re lucky even though it looks so bad,” Olson said.
Crews are working to clear debris and address immediate safety concerns, Clearwater County said on social media, noting that residents are asked to avoid affected areas, use caution on roads and stay away from downed trees and power lines.
A full assessment of damage to the region will be completed in the coming days, the county said.
In a social media post Saturday evening, Jason Nixon, Alberta’s finance minister who represents some of the affected areas as an MLA, said the province will be in close contact with both the county and city during the cleanup.
Northcott confirmed Sunday that the provincial government has reached out to Clearwater County, saying they are “very willing” to help, especially with wood debris.
Ministers from several provinces issued a statement Sunday afternoon thanking first responders and expressing sympathy for affected residents.
The Northern Tornado Project, based at Western University in London, Ont., said on social media that it had confirmed “at least one” tornado near Rocky Mountain House.
Tracking the storm that produced a tornado near Clearwater County, Alta., Environment Canada warned it could bring damaging winds, large hail and heavy rain. (Lina Elsaadi/CBC)
The team’s crews are currently investigating the tornado, canvassing affected areas Sunday on foot and by drone, said Matthew Woodward, Alberta damage survey lead for the project’s parent organization, the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory.
“Today, in particular, we saw damage to the roof. We saw a barn right down this road that had been swept right down to the ground,” Woodward said.
Having spent many years monitoring tornadoes, Woodward said seeing communities come together to lend each other a helping hand resonates with him every time.
“I admire that across Alberta people are coming together to recover from these tragedies, and I hope that continues across the province,” he said.
Members of the Alberta Northern Tornado Project, based in Ontario, are flying a drone Sunday to investigate signs that a tornado touched down near Clearwater County, Alta. (Nadir Hashmi/CBC)
Eric Van Loghem, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said it’s too early to tell if more than one tornado has hit the Clearwater County region.
“It appears to have missed most of the populated areas, but it did hit some structures,” he said Sunday morning.
Alberta experienced nearly 75 per cent more tornadoes in 2026 than in all of 2025, according to the Northern Tornadoes Project.
LISTEN | Tornado damages buildings, local infrastructure:
Dawn Albert9:19Tornado touches down near home in Rocky Mountain
We heard from Environment Canada meteorologist Eric Van Loghem about the storm, its damage and its origins.
It’s difficult to attribute the change to any one factor, Van Loghem said, but increased humidity leading to more thunderstorms plays a big role in tornado development. The active nature of the jet streams this summer is also a factor.
“It’s just a recipe for recurring thunderstorms,” he said.
“It’s unlike some of the other years we’ve seen lately.”