Edmonton tornado

The Edmonton tornado of 1987, an event also known as Black Friday to Edmontonians, was a powerful and devastating tornado that ripped through the eastern part of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and parts of neighbouring Strathcona County on the afternoon of Friday, July 31, 1987.

The tornado remained on the ground for an hour, cutting a swath of destruction 40 kilometres (25 mi) long and up to a kilometre (0.6 miles, or 3000 feet) wide in places, and peaking at F4 on the Fujita scale. The tornado killed 27 people, injured more than 300 people, destroyed more than 300 homes, and caused more than $332.27 million CAD ($617 million in 2016 dollars) in property damage at four major disaster sites. The loss of life, injuries and destruction of property made it the worst natural disaster in Alberta's recent history and one of the worst in Canada's history.

Weather forecasts issued during the morning and early afternoon of July 31, 1987 for Edmonton revealed a recognition by Environment Canada of a high potential for unusually severe thunderstorms that afternoon. Environment Canada responded swiftly upon receipt of the first report of a tornado touchdown from a resident of Leduc County which is immediately adjacent to Edmonton's southern boundary. At least four other tornadoes were reported that day in central Alberta between Millet and Vegreville.

Edmonton

Edmonton ⁱ/ˈɛdməntən/ is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region.

The city had a population of 877,926 in the 2014 census, making it Alberta's second-largest city and Canada's fifth-largest municipality. This population represents 66 percent of the total 2014 population of 1,328,300 within the Edmonton census metropolitan area (CMA), Canada's fifth-largest CMA by population. Edmonton is the northernmost North American city with a metropolitan population over one million. A resident of Edmonton is known as an Edmontonian.

Edmonton's historic growth has been facilitated through the absorption of five adjacent urban municipalities (Strathcona, North Edmonton, West Edmonton, Beverly and Jasper Place) and a series of annexations ending in 1982. Edmonton serves as the northern anchor of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. Known as the "Gateway to the North", the city is a staging point for large-scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta and large-scale diamond mining operations in the Northwest Territories.

Tornado warning

A tornado warning (SAME code: TOR) is an alert issued by national weather forecasting agencies to warn the public that severe thunderstorms with tornadoes are imminent or occurring. It can be issued after a tornado or funnel cloud has been spotted by the public, storm chasers, emergency management or law enforcement, or more commonly if there are radar indications of tornado formation. When this happens, the tornado sirens may sound in that area if any sirens are present, informing people that a tornado has been sighted or is forming nearby (because sirens are not intended to be heard indoors, residents should not completely depend on them. Have more than one way to receive alerts). The issuance of a tornado warning indicates that residents should take immediate safety precautions. It is a higher level of alert than a tornado watch, but (in the United States) it can be surpassed by an even higher alert known as a tornado emergency.

Early history

Alberta

Alberta (/ælˈbɜːrtə/) is a western province of Canada. With an estimated population of 4,196,457 as of July 1, 2015, it is Canada's fourth-most populous province and the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces. Alberta and its neighbour Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories until they were established as provinces on September 1, 1905. The premier has been Rachel Notley since May 2015.

Alberta is bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the US state of Montana to the south. Alberta is one of three Canadian provinces and territories to border only a single US state and one of only two landlocked provinces. It has a predominantly Humid continental climate, but seasonal temperature average swings are smaller than to areas further east, with winters being warmed by occasional chinook winds bringing sudden warming which moderates average temperatures.

Alberta's capital Edmonton is near the geographic centre of the province and is the primary supply and service hub for Canada's crude oil, oil sands (Athabasca oil sands) and other northern resource industries.

Global News

Global News is the news and current affairs division of Global Television Network in Canada, overseeing all local and national news programming on the network's twelve owned-and-operated stations (O&Os).

National programs

Global's lineup of national news and current affairs programming is as follows:

Although Global stations had always carried local news in various forms, the first tentative steps towards a national presence came in 1994 with the launch of First National with Peter Kent, an early-evening program focusing on national and international news but airing only in central Canada. After acquiring the Western International Communications (WIC) group of stations, Global cancelled First National in February 2001 and briefly aired the similar WIC newscast Canada Tonight in its place.