The tornado can be seen in the centre of this photo, taken with a camera phone from a small aircraft. (Submitted by Steward Van Male)

A tornado touched down five kilometres north of Airdrie on Sunday afternoon, as funnel clouds and severe hail formed across southern Alberta.

Environment Canada issued a tornado warning and activated the emergency public warning system Sunday evening after several people called to report a tornado.

Several people called Environment Canada to report a tornado near Airdrie on Sunday. (Submitted by Alastair Fraser)

The weather office also received reports of thunderstorms spawning funnel clouds in Oyen, on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, and in Linden, about 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary, said meterologist Dan Kulak on Monday.

Severe hail, considered more than 20 millimetres in diameter, was also seen near Calgary.

The warning lasted for about an hour, said Kulak. No damage has been reported from the wild weather.

"The latter part of June into the middle of July typically is the peak of the [tornado] season in Western Canada," said Kulak.

He said the weather should be more settled this week, but warned that people should always keep an eye on rapidly changing conditions.

"I use the analogy that even though you've got a green light when you're driving, you should still look both ways," he said.

With files from Andree Lau