AI helps discover the strongest tornado of the Alberta 2025 season
It was a busy storm season in Alberta, and artificial intelligence (AI) has helped find a tornado that is now tied as the strongest to touch down in the province during the 2025 season.
The Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) says that with the help of AI-assisted satellite imagery, a tornado touched down over the summer in northern Alberta on July 2.
The tornado, which occurred near Jackson Lake, was not witnessed by anyone and has been rated an EF2, tying it with a tornado that touched down on the same day near Lodgepole, Alta.
The NTP says the tornado happened in a forested area near the lake at approximately 11:30 p.m., and had an estimated maximum sustained wind speed of 190 km/h.
NTP Dashboard
Its track length spanned 1.32 kilometres, and had a maximum path width of 190 metres. The tornado motion was from the south.
Another tornado was identified to have touched down in Alberta on July 2 as well, thanks to AI-assisted satellite imagery, occurring near Shaw Lake and being rated an EF1 with an estimated maximum wind speed of 145 km/h, track length of 5.43 kilometres, and maximum path width of 520 metres.
Two additional tornadoes were confirmed from this past season, thanks to reports from the public, and an existing tornado was also updated.
Alberta is no stranger to tornadoes, having seen 15 confirmed touchdowns in 2025. In July of 2023, on Canada Day, a strong EF4 tornado touched down near Didsbury, making it the strongest tornado to touch down in Alberta since the 1987 Edmonton tornado.