'A lot of damage': Research team surveying destruction left by Calgary hail storm

A team of researchers is on the ground in Calgary assessing the damage caused by a recent destructive hail storm.

The Northern Hail Project, a Western University initiative, aims to understand the meteorology and impact of hail across Canada.

“This is the second major hail storm to hit Calgary in four years,” said Julian Brimelow, executive director of the project.

“We want to document the damage to inform future building standards and improve hail forecasting.”

Three crews are using drones and conducting door-to-door assessments in the areas hardest hit by Monday’s storm, which Brimelow estimates was 12 kilometres wide and stretched over a range of 120 kilometres.

“We had the $1.2 billion storm in 2020 and now, unfortunately, we have another storm in the really dense urban area, and we've seen a lot of damage, and we want to document that this will be the first forensic level damage survey in a large city in North America,” Brimelow said.

The goal of the project is to compile a comprehensive report on the storm’s impact and develop a playbook for future damage assessments.

“This will be a step towards understanding that better, and ultimately leading to better warnings and also, hopefully in the future, better building standards,” said Brimelow.

“Some materials are not well suited for hail damage, like vinyl siding, for example, and certain types of shingles. We're hoping that by assessing the damage and finding out what broke and how (it broke) we can make some suggestions to improving building standards.”

The Western University researchers will also be collaborating with insurance companies to gain access to more data and refine their models.

The Northern Hail Project encourages residents affected by the storm to share their experiences by contacting the project via email at [e-mail] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @westernuNHP.