Buckdog

Such a storm can catch many unawares. There's a similarity to the Hurricane Juan that swept through Nova Scotia and PEI.

There were weather warnings about the hurricane, but the local radio stations were not able to broadcast them since they were all automated. They were on a type of
Auto-Pilot for the weekend.

Is there a similar thing here with the Alberta storm? Moreover, was the storm one whose elements were variable by the minute and therefore unpredictable?

Why is it that with everything we need to find fault and blame people? Even a natural event now, it's not just a freak of nature, an unfortunate event, it's somebody dropping the ball. Seven freaking minutes, when you're dealing with a FLUID circumstance, and we get the blame game. If everybody was just doing their jobs in this world, tragedy would be in the past tense. It's true you know. I'd sue EC, because everyone knows the weather is 100% predictable and static.

You guys are missing the point here entirely. Successive Liberal and Conservative administrations have hacked and chopped away at Environment Canada. Long weekend or not, enough warning was not given in Alberta and death and injury occurred.

I live in Saskatchewan where we have a wide variety of dangerous weather conditions in the course of a year. We have -40 degree blizzards and summers that are so hot that they spawn tornadoes annually.

During the last Liberal administration, Environment Canada removed ALL weather forecasting ability from this province and moved it to Manitoba (to our East - even though our weather comes from the West). The Conservatives have done nothing to remedy it. We don't even have one Environment Canada forecaster here.

You can sympathize with Environment Canada if you wish. Do your own 'act of gawd' rationalization ... but you do my province a disservice for not listening to our ongoing concerm.

Well, since you're talking about another province, not sure what your point is then??

BTW, one thing about weather, sometimes there is no warning, it happens very quickly. The people who ran the event said they had two computers following the weather all day. Are they at fault too, or is it just the Liberals?

There is at least one forecaster in Saskatoon, but I'm not sure what they do that is different from Winnipeg which is where I think our weather reports come from. Maybe Bob Cormier isn't employed by EC any longer, I haven't seen him on the news in a while, but I don't watch the news much.

Leftdog is right, there should/could have been an earlier weather warning, these winds don't come out of nowhere.

It's also unacceptable that Regina (and probably Edmonton and Red Deer too) don't have a Tornado siren system in place.

Saskboy, CBC Sask carried a story back in late June about how that position you referred to was vacant and not being filled for the next while. I will try and find the link for you -

Steve ... my original post was/is a rant against Environment Canada as it is now with a reminder as to why/when things started to go wrong with them.

I'm sorry leftdog, you've got it all wrong. I lived in Saskatchewan for most of my life and just recently moved to Edmonton. I know how bad storms get in SK and AB. The reason EC removed their forecasting station is because it's all done by radar and EC does have doppler radar in SK.

Due to the amount of storms we've had in our area I've been carefully tracking them. We had severe warnings issued. Not one damaged our property. Yet less than 15 minutes away buildings were devastated. Actually having a station is irrelevant. Stop beating a dead horse. EC is doing what they can and is improving constantly.

The storm was totally unpredictable. There were several storm cells that were moving in at the same time at different speeds. To predict this would happen is like predicting a car crash. You might know, just moments before, but it's too late to stop it. Rather than placing the blame on the conservatives, let EC do their job and work to improve. With the deaths and injuries, I'm sure they don't need us cutting them up.

My thoughts am prayers go out the the Moore family and all other BVJ concert goers.

This story has brought out apologists for both the Liberals and the Conservatives. I go back to the title of this post ... "Environment Canada Is NOT Doing Its Job!!"

On Sunday, Dan Kulak, a “warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada”, claimed: “The bottom line, at the end of it all, it's essentially an act of God.”.

On what basis can anyone have concluded that it was an act of God? Can Dan Kulak, or anyone else, prove that God did it? Why on earth would God have done it?

AGREED! Considering the fact that meteorologists consider themselves to be practitioners of a 'science' .. what the hell are they blaming 'God' for?

Here's my bottom line. Canada is a northern nation whose climate is severe and at times unpredictable. Instead of spending the 'billions' that we are throwing at the Taliban (and losing, I may point out), can our federal government not peel off a few 'millions' and improve weather forecasting in our country????

"This story has brought out apologists for both the Liberals and the Conservatives. I go back to the title of this post ... "Environment Canada Is NOT Doing Its Job!!"

Actually, if you reread this discussion, you'll find YOU'RE the one who interjected partisanship into the discussion. I didn't even consider the government, merely my own curiousity with weather and how hard it is to predict fluid environments. I've watched storms appear before my eyes, when there was nothing on radar five minutes prior. Shit happens, but you seem content to turn it into some statement on past and present governments. I don't need to be an "apologist", when my criticism didn't entertain my party standing. That's you dude.