If your phone screamed at you tonight, that was the point. Environment Canada pushed an emergency alert across central Alberta Saturday evening, and a severe storm is now moving through the Edmonton region.
As of 7:47 p.m., Environment Canada was tracking a severe thunderstorm moving across north Edmonton, heading east-northeast at 45 km/h. The warning covers damaging wind gusts, hail, and very heavy rain, and it's the rain that's the immediate danger in the city. Forecasters say the downpour is likely to cause flash flooding and sharp drops in visibility. The advice is blunt: don't drive through flooded roads, and don't stop under overpasses.
The storm is fast, so conditions in St. Albert, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and the rest of the region are expected to shift quickly as it moves east.
The alert that buzzed every phone
The "very large hail" emergency alert that overrode phones at 7:43 p.m. was tied to a different, more violent storm to the west.
That storm sat near Entwistle in Yellowhead County, and Environment Canada warned it was capable of hail bigger than a baseball, along with damaging winds and intense rain. Hail that size falls fast enough to break windshields, dent roofs and injure anyone caught outside, which is why it triggered the broadcast-intrusive alert, the kind reserved for threats serious enough to interrupt whatever you're doing.
The tornado warning was cancelled
For part of the evening, a red tornado warning was in effect for parts of Yellowhead County. Environment Canada cancelled it at 7:43 p.m., the same moment it updated the thunderstorm warning, saying tornadoes are no longer expected in that area.
That's the good news of the night. But a cancelled tornado warning doesn't cancel the storm. The same system was still dropping baseball-size hail to the west and driving the severe weather now reaching the Edmonton area, and a storm capable of that much hail is one to shelter from regardless of the tornado risk easing.
Two storms, one night
Here's the shape of what's hitting the region. To the west, near Yellowhead County, the more violent cell brought the very large hail and the earlier tornado threat. Moving into Edmonton itself, the storm is bringing damaging winds, hail and the heavy, flooding rain that's the city's main concern tonight. As the system tracks east-northeast, St. Albert, Spruce Grove and Stony Plain are in its path.
Wildfire smoke, thick over the region all week, was forecast to possibly weaken today's storms. It didn't stop this one from organizing, and the safest assumption tonight is that the storm is stronger than the haze made it look.
A summer that keeps flooding
Tonight's storm lands on a city that's been soaked since spring.
Edmonton just came through its wettest June on record, 262 millimetres of rain, shattering a mark that stood since 1914 and more than tripling the month's historical average. The rain came in waves of heavy storms that overwhelmed the region's stormwater system, flooded basements and roads, backed up sewers and triggered Alberta Emergency Alerts for water conservation across Edmonton, St. Albert, Stony Plain and Beaumont. Insurers spent June deploying extra adjusters across the province for the water-damage claims.
That history is why tonight's flooding-rain warning carries extra weight. Ground that's already saturated has nowhere to put new water, so it runs straight to the streets, which is exactly how a fast, heavy downpour turns into flash flooding on roads that drained fine a decade ago. Our coverage of the record-breaking June is here: https://www.culturealberta.com/articles/edmonton-is-about-to-break-a-112-year-rainfall-record-as-another-major-storm-brings-flooding-this-we
What to do right now
Get inside and stay away from windows, which can shatter under a hail strike or a strong gust. If you're driving, slow down. Flooded roads and low visibility are the immediate hazard across Edmonton tonight, water pools deeper than it looks, and a road that seems passable can stall or sweep a vehicle. Never drive through a flooded roadway, and don't shelter under an overpass.
If you're caught outside, protect your head from hail and get to a building. Bring pets in. If you have a garage or carport and can move your vehicle under cover safely before the storm reaches you, hail damage to parked cars is one of the most common and costly outcomes of a night like this.
This is moving fast, keep checking
Storm warnings change by the minute. Edmonton shifted between watch and warning through the evening as the system approached, and the same will happen for the surrounding communities as it passes over them and moves on. The live picture for your exact location is at weather.gc.ca, on the WeatherCAN app, or through Alberta Emergency Alert.
To report severe weather, email ABstorm@ec.gc.ca, call 1-800-239-0484, or post with #ABStorm.
Stay in tonight. Check on neighbours who might not have seen the alert. And keep an eye on the sky to the west, because tonight it's coming from there.
Sources:
Environment and Climate Change Canada, severe thunderstorm warning for the Edmonton region and very large hail emergency alert, July 25, 2026: https://weather.gc.ca
Alberta Emergency Alert, July 25, 2026
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