Violent storm wreaks havoc in Lethbridge

Microburst rips roof from home, smashes RVs

Peering through the window of her Lethbridge RV dealer, finance manager Debby Berger could see a fifth-wheel trailer in the parking lot swaying “from side-to-side like it was a little toy car” — caught in the blasts of wind bearing down on the southern Alberta city in the snap summer storm.

By the time the sheets of rain had cleared and Berger emerged outside, the scope of the storm’s power became clear: several trailers flipped over, and one, a 34-foot Jayco Jay Flight, left smashed up on Highway 5 where the mighty winds had carried it.

“It levelled the fence and then it must have flown across the ditch, went over the ditch and landed smashed on the shoulder of the highway,” said Berger, waiting for insurance adjusters to arrive Thursday.

“There was the floor of the trailer and that was about it. The rest was pretty much smashed into pieces. “It all happened so fast.” According to Environment Canada Meteorologist Bill McMurtry, it took just 20 minutes for the weak line of thunderstorms that had rumbled over the mountains and rolled through the foothills near Pincher Creek on Wednesday to hulk up into the monster thunderstorm that hit Lethbridge.

Wind gusts likely topped 150 km/h as a microburst tore a path of de- struction through the south side of the city, ripping off part of a roof and upending trees.

Hail pelted the city and rain gushed down, with as much as 25 mm of rain falling in just 10 minutes in some areas.

Dana Terry, deputy chief of operations for Lethbridge fire services, said the city’s southern edge was hit hardest, with roofs and siding badly damaged, sheds tossed around in the wind and considerable amounts of hail falling.

At least one semi-truck was blown over, he said, while some trees were snapped almost in half.

“There was no splitting, it was almost like an axe hit it and cut it right off,” said Terry.

The blast was a type of weather phenomenon known as an outflow wind, or microburst.

The wind pushed down from the thunderstorm, then fanned out in a powerful burst in all directions, McMurtry said.

“Essentially it blossomed right over the city,” he said.

That type of wind damage tends to be more common in Alberta than tornadoes, which produce the opposite effect to a microburst with winds that converge and lift up at the centre of the tornado vortex.

The storm hit as Lethbridge’s famed air show is set to start Saturday.

Brent Botfield, president of the Lethbridge International Air Show Association, said crews were on site Wednesday evening cleaning up debris and replacing crowd fencing that had been knocked down.

He said the event is set to begin as scheduled and suffered no lasting storm damage.