Friday's hailstorm shredded siding, smashed windows in southeast Calgary
A little more than a month after a devastating hailstorm struck northeast Calgary causing more than $1.2 billion in insured damages, another storm has wreaked havoc in the city.
On Friday, toonie-sized hailstones pelted parts of the city's southeast, damaging dozens of homes and cars.
Lyndee Ibrahim said her Copperfield home's siding was torn up, her roof was likely damaged, and her new Jeep — purchased just two weeks ago — is heavily dented.
"It hit us pretty hard ... it destroyed siding, it destroyed cars. Anything you had in your backyard, my son's little slide has a big hole in it from the golf ball-sized hail we had. It just came in really fast," she said. "Our neighbour's is even worse than ours."
Her family has only lived in the home since February but Ibrahim said in her 23 years of living in Calgary she's never seen a storm like this.
"It came in so fast and it only lasted like 10, 15 minutes … it's pretty bad."
Sarah Hoffman, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said Friday's storm swept into the city at 5:30 p.m. and exited the city by 7 p.m. She said there were multiple reports of damage to structures.
The June 13 storm that hit northeast Calgary and surrounding areas damaged at least 70,000 homes and vehicles, and destroyed entire crops, as hailstones the size of tennis balls fell at 80 to 100 km/h.
"Alberta is no stranger to hail … It sure seems anecdotally that it's more frequent this year," Hoffman said.
Celyeste Power, western vice-president of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, told CBC News earlier this month that this summer's hail storms seem to be part of a pattern.
"It's hard to ignore the fact Canada has been hit hard with natural disasters over the last decade, we're seeing much more frequent severe weather," she said.
Hoffman said the summer severe weather season in Calgary usually runs from May long weekend to the second weekend in August.
