A hailstorm that tore through Calgary in early August has been named to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) most impactful weather stories of 2024.
Hail, some the size of hen eggs, tore through northern portions of Calgary, with reports collected of “widespread severe siding damage, multiple broken windows on each street, multiple car windshields smashed, widespread roof damage.”
The storm was so severe it damaged more than a dozen WestJet planes at the Calgary International Airport, requiring them to be repaired and inspected before they could be returned to service.
By the end of the storm, almost one in five homes in Calgary had been impacted, and the IBC says it resulted in nearly $2.8 billion in insured losses, according to initial estimates from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ).
The hailstorm was the second-costliest event in Canada’s history, following the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.
The most impactful weather stories of 2024 selected by ECCC are:
- From heatwave to wildfires: Jasper’s summer inferno
- Central Canada bears the brunt of the 2024 hurricane season
- Western Canada plunged into January deep freeze
- Atmospheric rivers deliver double blow to British Columbia
- Billion-dollar hailstones: Calgary’s costliest weather disaster
- Southern Ontario’s summer of floods
- Arctic communities face unusual heatwave
- Cape Breton’s winter wallop
- Summer split: Maritimes sizzle while Alberta shivers
- Wildfires and evacuations in western Labrador
ECCC added that the stories are selected and ranked based on severity, human and economic impact, the extent of the area affected, and the event’s longevity as a top news story.
“From coast to coast to coast, the severe and unseasonal weather events of 2024 left a memorable mark on the lives of Canadians across the country,” ECCC stated in a news release, with more than 40 fatalities being attributed to the impacts of the top 10 weather events.