Hail that fell on July 24, 2024 in the Lacombe County region of central Alberta. (Left: submitted by Kendalle Skorek; Right: Submitted by Evan Shukin)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

no tornado

‘Chaotic’ storm drops up to tennis ball sized-hail over parts of central Alberta

Jul 25, 2024 | 11:29 AM

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), a tornado-warned and very large hail-warned storm dropped hail up to the size of tennis balls over parts of central Alberta Wednesday night.

Judging by reports, or the lack thereof, the storm missed Red Deer entirely, but did cut a swath across the Eckville, Lacombe County, Bentley and city of Lacombe area, before heading northeast.

Brian Proctor, western Canada meteorologist with ECCC, says they received several reports of strange-looking spiky hail.

“This was indicative of hail collisions happening in the clouds. There were a lot of collisions occurring in this very chaotic storm, so that’s when they mass together,” he explains. “It’s not particularly normal.”

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He adds the atypical appearance of the hail is unrelated to the fact the storm was tornado-warned.

On that note, he says the supercell storm was, “very dynamic and significantly rotating,” adding that it had, “a lot of energy.”

“It wasn’t your typical Alberta supercell for this time of year. It was significantly rain-wrapped and smoke-wrapped.”

The smoke, in fact, likely delayed the storm by a couple hours, Proctor says, adding that it also produced a large amount of lightning.

There are no reports of any tornado ever touching down, and there are no reports of injuries.

The city of Lacombe unofficially recorded 6.4 mm of rain, but with the way precipitation was coming down and missing gauges, plus factoring in the hail, Proctor estimates it was closer to being between 15 and 30 mm.

Rocky Mountain House saw 14 mm, and Prentiss, just south of Blackfalds, got 0.4 mm.

It was hot again on Wednesday, but as of Thursday morning, there were no temperature records set, says Proctor.

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