Edmonton Alberta has storm of the Century...

actually it's said to be one in every 200 years:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1089632983717_68/?hub=Canada

This was hail not snow : http://www.worldisround.com/articles/58886/photo6.html

This message was edited Jul 15, 2004 1:41 AM

How bizarre....what strange weather everyone is having this year..

Thanks for posting these pictures.

It really took my breath away when we saw them in the newspaper Earthling. Edmonton has had some bad tornados before but this is unprecedented (obviously)! The tornados hit some of the smaller towns nearby.

We were under Tornado Watch/Warning yesterday but it bypassed us...we did have lots of rain and some hail up to golf ball size but thankfully in much smaller amounts!

Good Lord!!! What a mess! I feel sorry for the folks, especially the gardeners.

Are you sure Edmonton Alberta didn't jump up and move overnight next to New Jersey? Except for the incredible photo of the hail, it looks like the same mess.

I think they are beginning to wonder Darius... the Canadian prairies have had the occassional bad summer storm but nothing like what we are having this year! And for gardeners it really stinks since our last frost was just 3 weeks ago...up till this year we could really see the effects of climate change (planting out at the end of April).

Bizarre, indeed!!

"eyes"

Wow, that is just incredible. That large of hail must do incredible damage to everything.

From what I have read they are looking at 60 million dollars. What the hail damaged will be covered, but most people didn't have flood insurance. The Province of Alberta had just declared itself debt free only a day before.

Calgary Alberta had a similar storm a few days later. :S

How close is Edmonton to Calgary? My step son lives about 5 miles south of Calgary and his sons and families live in the city. This is truly a wierd weather year!
Pati

If I remember right, it's about a 3 hrs. drive from Ed. to Cal.

Hi Pati
It's 171 miles, as the crow flies, between Edmonton and Calgary. Kooger's driving time is about what I remember as well.

Here is a write up on the storm Calgary received:
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/07/17/546151.html

Thanks so much! I'll check in with my step son tonight and make sure everybodys O.K.
Pati

Imma thinkin' no news is good news Pati! What did you hear from Calgary?

Thanks for asking. Apparently everything was all right. I only talked with the house sitter, my stepson and family had gone canoe camping. I expect a call from him shortly. We have two low pressure areas they are watching for tropical storm development and he always checks in to see if I'm ready. Looks like if they turn into anything, North Carolina will get one and Texas or Louisiana the other. People always say "How can you live there with all those hurricanes", but Florida doesn't get as many as some people think. But when we do, they are DOOZIES!
Pati

Pati, I don't watch TV... not even the Weather Channel. Looks like maybe I should! (I know this wasn't part of the thread but I appreciate the information.)

Please let us know what those two systems do.

edited for poor English.

This message was edited Jul 30, 2004 1:21 PM

Darius, I don't watch until the House and Garden programs start in the evening, but I have the Weather Chanel on all day. No sound, but if there is anything going on I can check it out.

Lilypon, will let you know if anything develops. They're flying into the area today to take readings.
Pati

Thanks, Pati. I had a roommate once who's job it was to let me know who is President, and whether we were at war, LOL!

I guess you all know by now that the wave in the Atlantic turned into tropical storm Alice and is slowly wandering towards the North Carolina coast. It must be a slow weather news day; the Weather chanel has a reporter on the beach. Of course he's having a hard time keeping the excitement up, no rain yet, bright sunshine! The winds are only 30-40 miles per hour, and the only real results are high surf and rip tides. I'm not impressed, we had 50 MPH wind gusts here yesterday. My cousins live on the Outer Banks (Nags Head, NC) and they don't leave unless the winds are predicted to be over 100 MPH. It's hard to get people to evacuate when the surfers won't come out of the water! LOL
Pati

edited to correct name: Alex, not Alice. Just saw an update, wind now 60 MPH, but still just sitting off the coast of South Carolina

This message was edited Aug 2, 2004 8:25 AM

Rain, without too damaging winds, is good news! You do like a *good* storm don't you Pati? I love it when the sky rumbles and booms and the fireworks begin. :D

Thanks, Pati. After I read your post about an hour ago, I actually turned on the weather channel... just in time to see a storm warning for my county advising 2-4 inches of rain in the next 1-2 hours. Means lots of flash floods for this area.

I was going to Boone today to see my mother but think I'll wait until I see where Alex heads. I don't mind the winds much, but all the flooding that could bring both here and on my route to Boone is worrisome.

I didn't think about the flash floods. :S Sorry Darius! :(

Lilypon, I didn't address your remark about storms because I love them, too. (But not electrical storms.) I find them exhilarating and love the high ozone aftermath when everything is clean and fresh.

This is the first place I've ever lived where flash floods are a real danger. When Hurricane David came up through here a few years ago, the winds had dropped to around 50 MPH but we had to dodge whole trees coming down what few roads were barely passable. The amount of rain/water was incredible.

Sorry we hijacked your thread! I am STILL amazed at that photo of the hail.

No problem! :)

Here we do get the occassional really bad flood but usually in the spring after the ice break up...in 1974 we just had breakup and then a good rain, the rivers and creeks around town rose @ least 14 feet. The damage was horrendous but how the citizens came together to save our little city was truly amazing.

We live under drought conditions usually......this year was one of the very rare exceptions.

Edited to add a little excerpt I found on Moose Jaw's 1974 Flood......this thread brought back the memories:

"During April 18-19, the Moose Jaw River, Thunder Creek and Spring Creek, which join within the City of Moose Jaw, overflowed their banks, cutting the city in half and flooding commercial and residential properties. An estimated 60 city blocks were flooded, 480 homes inundated, and 1400 people evacuated. Several bridges and dams within the city limits were extensively damaged and essential services were disrupted."

We had very young children to people in there 80's help fill the sandbags. I was in High School and I remember 1/2 way through the morning all classes were cancelled so that the city's some 4,000 odd teens could also start filling, hauling and placing the bags.



This message was edited Aug 2, 2004 10:21 AM

Darius, unless it's absolutely necessary to go see your mom you should hang close to home. There's a reason they call them FLASH floods! Although the roads have improved since I was driving them, remember, there are still "flat-landers" driving on unfamiliar rain slick roads!

Lilypon, love the rain, but electrical storms scare me! Wouldn't you know it, Florida is the lightning strike capital of the U.S. LOL

For anyone who needs to keep track of the storm, here's the official NOAA web site.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

I've always loved them Pati...my Dad and I would sit on the front step and Dad would talk of the Greek God's battling it out. He would also keep track of the time between the boom and flash.....so we could head inside if need be.