Latest news with #hailstorm
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
On This Date: America's Record-Largest Hail Fell In South Dakota
Sometimes you need a little serendipity to set a new all-time weather record. On July 23, 2010, 15 years ago today, a supercell thunderstorm spawned a brief tornado and an 85-mph wind gust near Vivian, South Dakota, about 30 miles south of the state capital, Pierre. But it was the hail this supercell produced that etched this storm into U.S. history. One resident of Vivian saved several of the giant hailstones in a freezer after they pelted his property. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service in Aberdeen, South Dakota, later visited the Vivian resident and measured the largest of these stones to be a whopping 8 inches in diameter and 1.9375 pounds, both new U.S. records, topping the previous record from Sept. 3, 1970, in Coffeyville, Kansas. (WATCH: Flash Flood Floats New Mexico Business) It's hard for a single photo to illustrate how mammoth this hail was. The Vivian hailstone was almost as wide as a typical ball your child might use on the playground and roughly as heavy as a hammer. Now picture those stones falling at speeds over 100 mph, and you might imagine the damage they caused. The hail left large divots in grass and punched a hole through the deck of the Vivian home. And because the severe thunderstorm knocked out power at the home, the record hailstone melted somewhat between when it was first found and when the NWS meteorologists measured it. The Vivian hailstone is also the heaviest on record in the Western Hemisphere, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The heaviest hailstone anywhere on Earth weighed 2.25 pounds in the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh on April 14, 1986. Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
CBC
a day ago
- Climate
- CBC
Researchers chase storms, study fist-sized stones in Alberta's 'Hailstorm Alley'
Social Sharing Julian Brimelow holds up a replica of the mother of all hailstones — a lumpy white blob as big as your fist carrying the weight of two baseballs with the power to pulverize fields of corn into green-yellow mush. Brimelow and other researchers from Western University in London, Ont., are using it in their research to better understand and predict Alberta's prevalent hailstorm activity, and mitigate harm to people and property. Hail can be bad across the Prairies. But Brimelow says when it hits in Alberta, it hits hard. "It's much worse than I thought it could be in terms of damage potential," Brimelow said Tuesday at the project's open house at the Telus Spark Science Centre. "On the same day as the (2024) Calgary hailstorm, there was a storm farther south and that decimated six to seven-foot corn crops to the point that our team wasn't sure it was actually corn," he said. "It was that pummeled into the ground." WATCH | The Northern Hail Project surveys the damage caused by Calgary's recent hailstorm How a Canadian storm laboratory is investigating Calgary's hail damage 4 days ago The Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory at Western University in London, Ont., has dispatched a damage survey team to chase and investigate destruction from Alberta storms this summer. The 'Northern Hail Project' crew went out with the CBC's Acton Clarkin after a major hailstorm hit pockets of Calgary. "Hailstorm Alley" runs from High River, just south of Calgary, north to central Alberta. The area sees more than 40 hailstorms every summer, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Brimelow, executive director of the Northern Hail Project — a branch of Western University's Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory — said it's probably the most active hailstorm zone in Canada. A storm in Calgary last August brought significant hail, strong winds, heavy rain and localized flooding, affecting about one in five homes. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimated the damage to the city, deemed the country's second-costliest weather-related disaster, at $2.8 billion. Hailstones as big as golf balls hammered the tarmac at Calgary International Airport, damaging planes at WestJet and Flair Airlines, and forcing them to ground 10 per cent of their fleets for repairs and inspections. Brimelow said such hailstorms are underestimated at one's peril. Several small animals and pets were killed in Calgary last year, he said, and an infant was killed in Europe in 2023. The research sees stones collected on scene, preserved in a mobile freezer, and later measured, weighed, photographed and perhaps replicated. "The more interesting stones we'll 3D scan and then we can make prints," he said. Copies of several realistic hailstones were on display at the open house, ranging in size from a walnut to a golf ball and one bigger than a large hand. "This is the new record-sized Canadian stone. This fell in 2022 near Innisfail," Brimelow said. "This is 12.3 centimetres across and nearly weighs 300 grams. This would have been falling at 160-plus kilometres an hour." The team's field co-ordinator, Jack Hamilton, said the size and shape of the stones provide researchers with information on what happens inside the storms. "It was long thought that the hailstone sort of goes through the storm in a washing machine cycle. But we're actually learning that it's probably just once, maybe twice, that the hailstone goes through the storm and it collects all of its mass in that one travel through," Hamilton said. "It gets bigger and bigger, and eventually gravity takes over and it falls. And it falls pretty fast." To get the stones, they first have to chase them. Hamilton said their chase vehicles have a protective coating against hail and are equipped with storm-locating radar and a lightning detector for safety.
CTV News
a day ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Researchers chase storms, study fist-sized stones in Alberta's ‘Hailstorm Alley'
Julian Brimelow, executive director of the Northern Hail Project, displays a 3D replica of a near record hailstone collected in 2022, at the Telus Spark Science Centre in Calgary, on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland) Julian Brimelow holds up a replica of the mother of all hailstones – a lumpy white blob as big as your fist carrying the weight of two baseballs with the power to pulverize fields of corn into green-yellow mush. Brimelow and other researchers from Western University in London, Ont., are using it in their research to better understand and predict Alberta's prevalent hailstorm activity and mitigate harm to people and property. Hail can be bad across the Prairies. But Brimelow says when it hits in Alberta, it hits hard. 'It's much worse than I thought it could be in terms of damage potential,' Brimelow said Tuesday at the project's open house at the Telus Spark Science Centre. 'On the same day as the (2024) Calgary hailstorm, there was a storm farther south and that decimated six to seven-foot corn crops to the point that our team wasn't sure it was actually corn,' he said. 'It was that pummeled into the ground.' 'Hailstorm Alley' runs from High River, just south of Calgary, north to central Alberta. The area sees more than 40 hailstorms every summer, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Brimelow, executive director of the Northern Hail Project — a branch of Western University's Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory — said it's probably the most active hailstorm zone in Canada. A storm in Calgary last August brought significant hail, strong winds, heavy rain and localized flooding, affecting about one in five homes. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimated the damage to the city, deemed the country's second-costliest weather-related disaster, at $2.8 billion. Hailstones as big as golf balls hammered the tarmac at Calgary International Airport, damaging planes at WestJet and Flair Airlines and forcing them to ground 10 per cent of their fleets for repairs and inspections. Brimelow said such hailstorms are underestimated at one's peril. Several small animals and pets were killed in Calgary last year, he said, and an infant was killed in Europe in 2023. The research sees stones collected on scene, preserved in a mobile freezer, and later measured, weighed, photographed and perhaps replicated. 'The more interesting stones we'll 3D scan and then we can make prints,' he said. Copies of several realistic hailstones were on display at the open house, ranging in size from a walnut to a golf ball and one bigger than a large hand. 'This is the new record-sized Canadian stone. This fell in 2022 near Innisfail,' Brimelow said. 'This is 12.3 centimetres across and nearly weighs 300 grams. This would have been falling at 160-plus kilometres an hour.' The team's field co-ordinator, Jack Hamilton, said the size and shape of the stones provide researchers with information on what happens inside the storms. 'It was long thought that the hailstone sort of goes through the storm in a washing machine cycle. But we're actually learning that it's probably just once, maybe twice, that the hailstone goes through the storm and it collects all of its mass in that one travel through,' Hamilton said. 'It gets bigger and bigger, and eventually gravity takes over and it falls. And it falls pretty fast.' To get the stones, they first have to chase them. Hamilton said their chase vehicles have a protective coating against hail and are equipped with storm-locating radar and a lightning detector for safety. 'Our primary objective is to collect as much data as we possibly can,' he said. 'We go in behind these storms, and we collect the hail that falls behind it.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2025. Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press
CBC
7 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Researchers are surveying Sunday's hail damage
A group of scientists and researchers with the Northern Hail Project is gathering data from the hailstorm. The Calgary Eyeopener talked to the Project's research meteorologist about what the group is seeing.
CBC
14-07-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Hailstorm hits Calgary, residents share photos of the aftermath
A thunderstorm hit Alberta Sunday evening, pelting Calgary and the surrounding area with hail. Northeast Calgary experienced wind gusts of up to 93 kilometres per hour around 8 p.m., according to Environment Canada. Below is a collection of photos submitted to CBC Calgary from residents who experienced the hailstorm. Have photos of the hailstorm? Send them to calgaryphotos@
