The month of May was an eventful one weather-wise in Athabasca County; dry heat and strong winds fueled a wildfire south of Boyle at the start of the month, and the last week of May saw two confirmed EF1 tornadoes touch down in the Atmore area.
On the evening of May 26, what many passersby thought was a windstorm near the hamlet of Atmore grew into a low-level tornado — one of two to touch down in the area that day — destroying outbuildings and sheds and tearing roofs off of homes in its path. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) confirmed the weather events were indeed tornadoes two days after they touched down, and the findings were reported on InstantWeatherInc.com.
EF1 tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale — named after meteorologist Dr. Tetsuya Fujita — are the second-lowest rating on the scale and are considered weak, with wind speeds between 129 km/h and 177 km/h. EF1 tornadoes can still cause significant damage, such as tearing roofs off frame-built houses and pushing vehicles off roads.
The first twister to touch down did so southwest of Atmore around 7 p.m., and took a northeast path at approximately 220 degrees, travelling over 21 km before ending north of Plamondon.
Data shows the path of the tornado reached 300 metres at its widest, and wind speeds were as fast as 175 km/h. Property damage was reported, including damage to homes in the Atmore and Rossian areas, north of Plamondon, and extensive tree damage was confirmed by drone and satellite footage.
Jason Hatt is a resident of Atmore, living with his family right on the north side of Highway 55 beside the old Atmore Service Garage. While he didn’t see the storm with his own eyes, he first heard the slapping of shingles blowing around on his roof, and caught images of the tail end of a dark, cloudy mass on the edge of his backyard with his
security cameras.
While Hatt’s roof stayed intact, his sheds and a portion of trees lining the backyard did not. He said the tornado came from the west side of the Service Garage, evidenced by downed trees in the area.
Tree and property damage are also visible along the south shore of Charron Lake; one single-wide trailer along a range road alongside the lake lost its roof, and patches along the treed shore showed snapped and strewn trunks and branches.
The second event began 25 minutes after the first, approximately 20 km north of the Atmore twisters' ending point. Also classified as an EF1, the second, smaller tornado hit the forested areas surrounding the unincorporated community of Avenir.
The Avenir twister’s maximum wind speed is estimated to have reached 150 km/h, and spanned a 370-metre-wide path. The tornado travelled from the south southwest for just under 6.5 km at a 205-degree angle, uprooting and snapping trees in its path.
‘Top two scariest moments’
Fort McMurray resident Robben Banks and his husband were heading northbound towards home May 26 after staying at their camping lot near Ellscott when they felt the effects of one, possibly both tornadoes.
“Me and my husband, we were in different vehicles, we were going to pull into Grassland to gas up together, and it was pretty crazy in Grassland. Garbage cans were tipped over,” said Robben. “You could see a couple of dust devils or dirt devils rolling off in the field, and you’re like ‘oh, this isn’t super great.’”
Noticing the semis parked to wait out the strong wind and airborne branches in Grassland, the couple were determined to get back to the northern Alberta city.
Not wanting to be caught in the worst of it, the Banks’ returned to the highway towards Atmore, and ended up closer to the action than anticipated. Seeing a large cloud of dust moving north while at the turnoff towards Fort McMurray and watching the now-downed stop sign blow across the road, she grabbed her phone and started recording.
“It didn’t look like a tornado until I rounded that last section of trees,” she said. “In the video, you can’t tell that it’s spinning, but I was on the phone with my friend and I’m like it is spinning, this is huge, I can’t get over what is happening around me.”
“Then we hit this very large dust cloud and you could hardly control the vehicle through it, you couldn’t see past the hood of your vehicle.”
Still moving northwards, the Banks’ managed to get through the dust cloud, but that wasn’t the last of the surprises. They encountered more gusts and whirlwinds in a drive Banks said was the second most frightening experience of her life.
“I swear I felt the back end of my car pick up, the way it hit — it scared me, it was quite scary. The dogs were going nuts,” she said. Her husband, driving behind her, also felt the impact of the gust, getting pushed into the second lane of the twinned section of Highway 63 north.
The worst of it lasted for around five minutes by Banks’ estimation; she said she was surprised at the lack of vehicles in the ditch, herself and her husband included. As they continued on their trek north, Banks said they encountered more, tamer pockets of the storm and maneuvered around and through spontaneous dust devil whirlwinds.
“I said to my husband — we’ve gone through the 2016 fire in Fort Mac — this was on par with how scary that was. It was definitely up there, top two scariest moments. It was very intense.”
According to Wikipedia, an F0 tornado hit the Boyle area on July 1, 1981. An unrated tornado hit Athabasca on June 29, 1984, destroying granaries and farm equipment.
Westlock County saw an unrated tornado on July 11, 2003, and an EF0 twister was recorded in the Athabasca area on July 13, 2017.
Two years later, on June 28, 2019, an EF0 twister touched down 15 km east of Lac La Biche, resulting in reports of hail as large as 29 millimetres.
Of the nearly 650 tornadoes recorded in Alberta between 1883 and 2023, 398 have been classified as EF0, and 143 have been categorized as EF1.
