Tornado touches down near Wildwood, Alta

A tornado tore through the Wildwood area, about 100 kilometres west of Edmonton, on Monday, as other parts of central Alberta saw hail nearly as big as baseballs.

The tornado touched down south of Wildwood around 9:30 p.m, Environment Canada confirmed. But the agency says it has received no reports of damage.

"I thought for sure there was going to be a lot of trees down," said Dennis Yuhasz, who lives in a trailer just north of Wildwood.

"It was rocking pretty good, but it was still there this morning."

A second possible tornado may have landed earlier Monday evening about 50 kilometres southwest of Wildwood, near Cynthia. Environment Canada received a report of a funnel cloud and a severe thunderstorm, which is a combo capable of producing a tornado. 

The weather agency said there were also reports of hail ranging from the size of golf balls to nearly as big as baseballs east of Edson, linked to the same weather system.

"We got some big-time super cells, big monster updrafts, rotating storms that produce really big hail, tennis-ball size. Hail destroyed my windshield and I had to get a new windshield this morning in Edmonton," said professional storm chaser Aaron Jayjack, who drove into the hail storm.

Environment Canada says the weather system over the past few days peaked Monday.

"We've had a big ridge of high pressure over the southern part of the province and there's a southwesterly jet that sets up sort of perpendicular to the terrain and that is a favourable setup for severe weather thunderstorms and potential for tornadoes," said Justin Shelley, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

On social media, Albertans posted about damage that included toppled trees and ruined crops, as well as structure and windshield damage.

Shelley said there were also reports of damage caused by a separate storm system in the Westlock area, about 85 kilometres north of Edmonton, with strong winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour.

"We did get reports... downed trees, damaged roofs, and other damage throughout the town there," Shelley told CBC.

For the Wildwood area, Monday's storm punctuated a summer impacted by severe environmental events, including evacuations from wildfires and flooding.

"There just seems like there's never any end to it — either burning us out, flooding or trying to blow us away," Yuhasz said.