{"id":831866,"date":"2026-07-28T17:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/831866\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T17:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:49:12","slug":"elk-island-national-park-closes-due-to-flooding-and-storm-damage-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/831866\/","title":{"rendered":"Elk Island National Park closes due to flooding and storm damage | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Elk Island National Park, just east of Edmonton, has temporarily closed due to flooding and storm damage.<\/p>\n<p>In a notice posted to its website, Parks Canada said the entire park has been closed because of flooding, downed trees and other hazardous conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVisitor safety is Parks Canada\u2019s top priority,\u201d the notice stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are taking steps to address the situation and to reopen the park to visitors as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The closure follows the powerful storm that swept through the Edmonton region on Saturday, July 25, bringing destructive winds, heavy rain, and localized flooding. Thousands of people attending Post Malone\u2019s concert at Commonwealth Stadium were forced to shelter before the show was ultimately cancelled because of the severe weather.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The storm is just one in a <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/edmonton\/edmonton-summer-rainfall-record-weather\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">string of wet weather events<\/a> that have totally soaked the Edmonton area this summer, with the city already shattering its seasonal rainfall record.<\/p>\n<p>In a typical summer, Edmonton receives about 213 to 214 millimetres of rain across June, July, and August. But according to Jennifer Kowal, an operational meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), some weather stations have already recorded more than 500 millimetres this summer.<\/p>\n<p>The previous record was set in 1953, when 417 millimetres of rain fell. Edmonton\u2019s 10 wettest summers have recorded between 330 and 410 millimetres.<\/p>\n<p>Kowal said the unusually wet conditions have also helped fuel the region\u2019s frequent thunderstorms.<\/p>\n<p>Meteorologists use the acronym MIST to describe the four key ingredients needed for thunderstorms: moisture, instability, shear, and a trigger. This summer, Kowal said, moisture has been the defining factor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause there\u2019s so much water on the ground, you just have more antecedent moisture than you normally would ever have,\u201d Kowal told Daily Hive.<\/p>\n<p>While the region has seen an exceptionally stormy start to the season, Kowal said August is typically warmer and drier than June and July, with forecasts suggesting conditions should gradually return to something more seasonal.<\/p>\n<p>However, before that happens, the ground needs some time to dry out.<\/p>\n<p>You can find the latest updates on Elk Island National Park\u2019s status on its <a href=\"https:\/\/parks.canada.ca\/pn-np\/ab\/elkisland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elk Island National Park, just east of Edmonton, has temporarily closed due to flooding and storm damage. In&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-831866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}