People living across much of central and southeastern Alberta are being urged to keep an eye to the sky Friday.

Environment Canada has issued a series of severe thunderstorm watches for a large area of central Alberta stretching from just south of Hinton, through Edmonton to the Montana border in the southeast.

The national weather agency said thunderstorms are developing over the Alberta foothills and will move to the northeast through the afternoon and evening, with some of them possibly severe enough to produce large hail, heavy winds and heavy rainfall locally.

A special weather statement has also been issued for much of the same area, from Swan Hills in the north to Innisfail in central Alberta, warning that conditions are also favourable for the development of funnel clouds.

In some cases, the statement said, the funnel clouds could intensify enough to become weak landspout tornadoes.

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While landspout tornadoes don’t normally cause significant damage, Environment Canada warns they can still be dangerous and strong enough to topple trees, damage roofs and toss debris short distances.

Residents are being advised to treat the sighting of any funnel cloud seriously and seek shelter.

With weather radar already showing some storms already developing, the Alberta Hail Suppression Project has launched several aircraft to seed the clouds with silver iodide to help reduce the severity of any hailstorms.

Environment Canada said the thunderstorms are expected to weaken late Friday evening.

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Supercell vs Landspout Tornado