'Grapefruit-sized hail' fell in Alberta Monday, and it may break a record
CBC
When Matt Berry left Innisfail, Alta., Monday evening to drive north to Red Deer, it was "perfect" weather, he recalls.
But about 10 minutes later, just after 6 p.m., it was an entirely different story. A storm rolled through the area, smashing massive chunks of hail onto dozens of cars stopped along Queen Elizabeth II Highway.
Berry was just north of Innisfail, near Antler Hill, when it struck.
"The next thing I know my windshield was caving in on me and cracking and breaking," he said in an interview with the Calgary Eyeopener.
"My windshield is absolutely destroyed.… I was just scared of this thing coming in on top of me."
He managed to pull off to the side of the road and waited for the storm to pass. In all, it lasted for about 10 to 15 minutes, he said, but it left its mark.
According to RCMP, 34 vehicles were damaged Monday — down from an earlier estimate of 70 — while numerous people suffered minor injuries and three collisions were caused by the storm.
Stuart Brideaux, public education officer with Alberta Health Services, says local fire and EMS also attended the scene at about 6:30 p.m. Although some people were hit indirectly by hail coming through windows and broken glass, he said no one required transportation to the hospital.
It's good news, considering the size of the hailstones coming down.
"We were all a bit shocked to be honest.... I'm pretty sure we're probably going to set a new record in terms of mass," said Julian Brimelow, executive director of Western University's Northern Hail Project — a five-year study based in Alberta.
"We were getting reports of grapefruit-sized hail, softball-sized hail.... Usually in an exceptional day, we maybe have tennis ball-sized hail, so six to seven centimetres. But [Monday], we had a lot of stones that were over 10 centimetres across."
The team has taken its samples to a lab in Red Deer to confirm whether the hailstones set a provincial record, or even a national one.
"From what we can tell, the stones had been on the ground about 20 minutes before our team could get there. So there had been some melting," he said. "It's going to be close, I think."
He's not sure why the hail in this storm was so much bigger than usual, but he expects it may have something to do with an abundant amount of moisture near the ground Monday, which isn't typical in Alberta.
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