Environment Canada has confirmed a tornado took place near Okotoks Sunday afternoon.

The tornado was just seven to eight kilometres northeast of Okotoks and was classified on the weakest end of Enhanced Fujita scale as an EF0 tornado with winds between 90 and 130 km/h.

Dan Kulak, meteorologist with Environment Canada, says the EF scale is used to rate the type of damage caused by wind, whether it's a tornado or straight-line wind.

"The bottom end of the scale is a zero, the top end is a five, and in the zero range wind speeds are generally in the 90 to 130 kilometre per hour range and as you move up the scale in the five level you're looking at 300 kilometre plus winds so this was towards the bottom end of the scale."

He says there's a main factor that's been driving the wild weather the Foothills has been experiencing.

"When we get a difference between what's at the ground and what's aloft, aloft is about two to five kilometres above the ground, it's that relative difference in temperature that helps drive the thunderstorm environment so you don't necessarily need hot weather at the ground to get severe weather it's all relative to what's happening at the ground versus what's happening a number of kilometres above the ground."

Kulak adds it's important people keep an eye out for lightning with the severe weather as it kills more people in Canada per year than rain, hail, windstorms, and tornadoes combined.