“I was covered in shards of glass,” the graphic designer said as he recalled the time he pulled onto a country road to hide while driving from Innisfail, Alta., to his home in Red Deer, Alta. “The noise was quite loud,” he said. “It was just crazy. Scary at times, but really it was just shock and awe more than anything.”
Read more: Severe weather in Alberta leaves damaged cars lined up on highway
The Environment and Climate Change Agency of Canada announced Wednesday that hailstones that fell in central Alberta ranged in size from peas, dimes, nickels, golf balls, hen eggs, tennis balls, baseballs and softballs. Story continues below ad The Innisfail, Pine Lake, Condor, Rimbey and Ferrier areas were hit, the agency said. Environment Canada had issued a tornado watch hours before the storm, warning that large hail could fall later in the evening and cause a dangerous and potentially life-threatening situation. At about 6pm, an alert was sent warning people to take cover immediately. Videos on social media were posted after the storm left drivers on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway – the main route between Edmonton and Calgary – covered over their heads as hail smashed their windows. RCMP Cpl. Gina Slaney said 34 vehicles sustained significant damage during the storm.
Read more: Damage assessment underway after storm in central Alberta
Slaney said there were also many minor injuries. The most serious injuries included a cut on the side of one’s neck, he said. Three collisions were reported during the storm. Sara Hoffman, who is a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the size of the hail was larger than expected. “The prairies are a magical place with storms, so I was expecting strong storms on Monday,” he said. Story continues below ad “We all thought the maximum hail size would be about seven to eight centimeters.” But a group that researches hailstorms in Canada says a hailstone found in Markerville, Alta., on Monday weighed a record-breaking 293 grams. “Some colleagues and I maintain a national database of really large hail from around the world, and before Monday’s event, there were only 21 recorded hailstones weighing more than 290 grams,” said Dr. Julian Brimelow, executive director of the North Hail Project. . Trending Stories
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NHP is very excited to announce that the field team has collected a new large hail record for Canada on August 1, 2022! The stone fell near the settlement of Markerville in Alberta. Press release here: pic.twitter.com/AscXQhU2wK — Northern Hail Project 🇨🇦 (@westernuNHP) August 3, 2022 “As far as we know, this is also the largest documented hail to fall in Canada.” The last record-breaking hail in Canada occurred on August 27, 1973 in Saskatchewan. Story continues below ad Brimelow said three team members discovered the hail in soft snow under a tree. “It looks like the hail didn’t lose much (ice) when it hit the ground,” he said. It was then immediately placed in the freezer for testing. Hoffman said the size of hail in Monday’s storm is rare for Canada. “Alberta averages 65 reports of severe hail a year,” he said. “A hail storm becomes severe when the size of the hail is larger than a nickel or two centimeters.” Hoffman said it’s also unusual for the storm to cross a major highway. “It takes a lot of things to line up for severe storms to have that much of an impact on a major transportation corridor like this,” he said. “You have warm air underneath the cold air and that creates some really turbulent mixing. Winds coming from different directions, at different heights, at different speeds. “We had a developing low pressure system over the center of the province, so that was the trigger for the storms.” The Insurance Bureau of Canada said in an email that it may not have estimates around insured losses for several weeks. He encouraged Albertans to take photos of the damage and contact their insurance agent. Story continues below ad Berry said he contacted his roadside soon after the storm and has already started the insurance claim. “I also immediately called the tow truck and I think I was the second one to them because he said, ‘What’s going on because my phone is blowing up,’” he said. The RCMP and fire department were on the scene fairly quickly, he added. He then called his mother and arrived home at about 10:30pm that night. “At the end of the day, vehicles are replaceable, possessions are replaceable,” Barry said. Hoffman said those caught in the storm mostly did what they had to to stay safe. “They intuitively knew what to do, which was to pull over, stop driving, cover their faces and heads with their hands and try to look away from the window where the wind is blowing.” He added that the stormy weather doesn’t leave Alberta for a few days. “This has been a very active year, so there’s a lot of energy available for storms.” 3:24 Severe weather in Alberta: Golf ball-sized hail smashes cars along major highway Previous video Next video © 2022 The Canadian Press
