Threat of Tennis Ball Hail, Damaging Winds, and Tornadoes on Wednesday as Strong Severe Thunderstorms Take Aim at Parts of Alberta & Saskatchewan

After a bit of a break yesterday, severe weather returns today to parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan. There is a widespread risk of severe thunderstorms across large swaths of both provinces today, however there is a threat of particularly strong severe thunderstorms for parts of Eastern Alberta and Western Saskatchewan.

The environment will be quite unstable throughout the region today, with CAPE values expected to climb as high as 2500J/kg. Combined with plenty of moisture and a considerable amount of shear, conditions will be favourable for thunderstorm development.

Some storms have already begun this morning to the northwest of Lac la Biche, and the bulk of today’s storms are expected to initiate in the Alberta Foothills later this morning and into the early afternoon. The storms will develop along a warm front that’s associated with a low which will move into Northern Alberta from British Columbia. It’s expected that today’s thunderstorms will start off as small individual storms, but they should quickly grow and strengthen as the track eastward across Alberta and reach the Saskatchewan border by the late afternoon.