Tornado touches down in northern Alberta

Parks and Forestry Minister Todd Loewen posted photos showing damage to the village of Girouxville, Alta., after a strong storm knocked out power.

A tornado touched down in northern Alberta Monday evening, locals say.

Brad Drouin told CTV News Edmonton he was on the road when he saw the tornado forming over the town of Falher and, a few minutes later, touch down somewhere north of the community of 1,000.

ATCO attributed a power outage in Girouxville, another small community west of Falher, to a tornado touchdown.

Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen also shared pictures of storm damage.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and the Northern Tornadoes Project out of Western University have confirmed at least one tornado in the Peace River region, but as Tuesday morning, could not confirm when and where the tornado touched down, or provide a rating.

A team is being sent to investigate.

ECCC says the storm started as rain before developing into a super cell that tracked southeast from the Peace River region toward High Prairie.

The agency issued a thunderstorm warning shortly before 9:30 p.m. A spokesperson could not say why a tornado warning was not issued earlier.

Falher and Girouxville are more than 400 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.