Airdrie hail storm likely caused 'gustnado' in Calgary, officials say

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a "gustnado?"

While police say they did receive several reports of a tornado touching down east of Mtis Trail and north of Stoney Trail, Environment Canada says the incident was rather a gustnado, or spout from a nearby storm system battering Airdrie.

The weather agency says the storm system was not over Calgary at the time of the incident andthe spiral winds likely came from the nearby storm.

Det. Dale Seddon with the Calgary Police Service says the incident didn't cause any damage and hita grassy area.

Airdrie pounded

However, much of Airdriedid seegolf ball-sized hail pelting homes and vehicles late Thursday afternoon.

Airdrie RCMP said they responded to 24 calls for servicebetween 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. MT ranging from alarms to motor vehicle collisions.

"One collision on Yankee Valley involved five vehicles, and required Airdrie Fire Services to extricate a vehicle occupant. There were no injuries," RCMP said in arelease.

Sean Bryan said hes never seen anything like it.

My siding is it's gone on one side where it was coming from. It's all shattered and my car was outsideit's all dented to heck.

The hail broke Jenell Martin's front window.

"The sky just opened up and I thought the skylight was going to come down and it was like a freight train. It sounded like a freight train was coming," she said.

Environment Canada said the Standard area 90 kilometres east of Calgary was pelted with tennis-ball sized hail.

Have a photo of the storm? Send it to calgaryphotos@cbc.ca or tweet us @CBCCalgary