Author Archives: Ryan Keller

Last night while flying from Toronto to Calgary at 38,000 feet. Taken by AlbertaWX member Matt Melnyk.

July 31st 2017 will be the 30 year anniversary of the Black Friday tornado in 1987. 27 people were killed and over 300 were injured. The first report of the tornado came from a resident of Leduc county. It cut a swath northward through Millwoods then the Strathcona industrial area and then hit the Evergreen trailer park.
I witnessed this tornado first hand as it barreled towards our window in Millwoods only to shift direction and hit the next block over. The devastation I witnessed first hand I hope to never see again. The Black friday tornado is what inspired me to become a storm chaser. I want to educate the public of the dangers of severe weather. As a result of my experiences I not only have a healthy respect for mother nature but a fascination with it as well.

– AlbertaWX chaser Ryan Keller

Our friend Brenda Hall has given us permission to post photos from the album of E.F. (Erv) Butz. Many of these photos have not been made public.

These photos are the intellectual property of Brenda Hall and her family.

Today we were prepared for chasing but we were not prepared for what happened thats for sure! Our chaser Mike Rurak was up chasing a cell in Wetaskwin county when our Alberta Emergancy alert went off. Tornado! Unfortunately it was all the way down by Three Hills Alberta. 

Here is what it looked like on Radar:

Twitter started flooding with amazing pictures including this video:

Where were we you might ask? Far away unfortunately. In fact no chaser was anywhere near this tornado. A meteorologist friend of mine referred to it as a “mesoscale accident”… I can definitely agree with that assessment. 

So anyways here is what we got from our… Less exciting storm over Mulhurst bay Alberta.