Calgary’s 2024 hailstorm was one of Canada’s costliest disasters
The hailstorm hit northern Calgary in August 2024, causing more than $2 billion in insured losses
A powerful supercell thunderstorm that struck the Calgary area on a Monday evening in August turned into one of the costliest weather disasters in Canadian history.
Copious amounts of wind-swept hail pounded neighbourhoods across northern Calgary on Aug. 5, 2024, damaging tens of thousands of homes, businesses, and vehicles.
So much hail fell in some areas that streets and roofs alike turned white as if it had snowed.
DON’T MISS: Survey suggests 35,000 buildings damaged by Calgary hailstorm
Calgary is exceptionally vulnerable to damaging storms, earning it the nickname of the hailstorm capital of Canada. The storm that hit the city in August 2024 arrived just over four years after another devastating, billion-dollar hailstorm struck in June 2020.
Ample instability and favourable upper-level winds over southern Alberta on Aug. 5, 2024, allowed thunderstorms to blossom in the foothills late that afternoon and move southeast through the evening.
One particularly robust supercell thunderstorm pushed across northern Calgary.
Western University’s Northern Hail Project (NHP) analyzed the storm’s aftermath and found that the swath of hail damage “was more than 120 km long and 12 km wide.”
Some of the hailstones were as large as hen eggs. Torrential rains mixed with hail led to localized flooding. The copious amount of hail accumulated like snow in hard-hit neighbourhoods. Strong winds made matters worse, whipping the hailstones around to shatter windows, dent vehicles, and shred vinyl siding.
Calgary International Airport suffered roof damage from the storm, forcing the closure of numerous gates. WestJet had to pull 17 aircraft from service for repairs.
An initial survey from the NHP estimated that the hailstorm damaged 35,000 buildings in and around northern Calgary, with damages ranging from dented roofs to a complete loss of windows and siding on some walls.
One month after the storm, the Insurance Bureau of Canada reported that hail damage resulted in more than 130,000 claims and estimated losses of around $2.8 billion.
This staggering tally reportedly registers as Canada’s second-costliest insured event on record behind the wildfire that devastated Fort McMurray, Alta., in 2016.