Calgary-based storm chaser Kyle Hetherington breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Environment and Climate Change Canada’s new changes to tornado warnings last week. “Selfishly, it’ll stop people from calling me every time they get a warning, because all my family members call me when they get a warning to find out if they’re in it or not,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday. The federal agency has taken yet another step to localize its storm warning system. Now, tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings will be targeted to specific polygonal areas that are actively being hit by a storm or that stand in the path of an active storm. The changes do not apply to watches, rainfall or snowfall warnings. The previous system gave larger zones because, as CTV News Edmonton’s Chief Meteorologist Josh Classen says, “that’s just how warnings were issued.” “This is going to be huge because you’re going to have way fewer false warnings. A lot of times, what happens with these storms is that they’ll pop up on an edge or a warning zone. But the entire area gets that warning.” He says since news broke of the changes, he’s seen Albertans especially expressing relief on social media. “Like, ‘Finally, I won’t get a severe thunderstorm warning that doesn’t happen nine times out of 10.’” The province is on track to see its wettest year since 1900. It’s also had more than 20 tornadoes in the last two months, not to mention the warnings beforehand. “If you get 15 warnings a year and one time you get a storm, it’s human nature to just start ignoring them … With people that have fears of weather, some panic. Some look up and it’s blue sky,” Hetherington said. “The worst thing is people losing faith in the warning system.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson
