Environment Canada released its annual list of the Top 10 weather events on Dec. 21, 2014 and Airdrie appears on it twice.
The hailstorm that struck Airdrie and the surrounding area on Aug. 7, 2014 comes in at seventh place.
A series of hailstorms rolled through Airdrie in the afternoon and evening, producing golf-ball sized hail which damaged many homes and vehicles. The Insurance Bureau of Canada categorized the Aug. 7, 2014 hailstorm as a “catastrophic event”, and estimates the property damage to total more than $450 million.
Damage to farmers’ crops was also substantial, according to the Canadian Crop Hail Association, with more than 13,300 crop-related hail claims filed with total payouts of $250 million.
The sound of hammers has become common place in some Airdrie neighbourhoods as roofing and siding contractors work to repair the substantial damage done to some homes.
Jason Kurtz, owner and operations manager of KWR Roofing Systems Inc. in Airdrie said his phone started ringing as soon as the storm passed.
“Pretty much after the storm hit, on a Friday, our phones were ringing that night and we were having conference calls (with insurance companies) on Saturday morning,” Kurtz said.
Kurtz said he’s worked three or four different storms in Airdrie since 1991 but 2014’s is one of the worst he’s seen.
Airdrie is in the middle of what Environment Canada Meteorologist Bill McMurtry calls ‘Hail Alley,’ a corridor that stretches across west-central Alberta and includes Red Deer to Calgary.
“This year (2014) Airdrie saw more than their fair share of hail events,” he said. “There were numerous events that occurred during the summer period, with Aug. 7, 2014 being the worst of all of them.”
The storm also covered a large expanse of area, according to Environment Canada, stretching more than 300 kilometres (km) across central Alberta and making it one of the largest areas impacted by a single storm in 20 years.
“We had some people say they got hit three separate times within an hour to hour and a half period,” McMurtry said.
“It was interesting to get waves of hail rather than just one down burst.”
Kurtz said his workers are having to work long into the fall and winter, but the mild weather so far this year is helping.
“We’re taking advantage of it as much as we can,” he said.
“We don’t work once the temperature reaches minus 10 and below. At minus 15 we’re kind of pushing the envelope, minus 20 we’re into the safety side of things.”
According to Kurtz, roofing and siding products have advanced far enough that they can be installed during weather extremes.
“There are a lot of people who are concerned because their homes are still full of holes,” he said.
“As long as the integrity of that black paper behind the vinyl siding isn’t breached, you’re fine because that’s your water barrier.”
Kurtz said he did hire more staff to supplement the 27 installers he usually employs.
“We had to ramp up for sure. We fell on people we’d worked with in the past. Because we’re a preferred contractor for Southern Alberta and Lethbridge is part of our region, we were able to bring a lot of manpower up from Lethbridge to help us out.”
Airdrie was also impacted by the number 10 weather event on Environment Canada’s list, a snow storm that hit the area on Sept. 8, 2014 and Sept. 9, 2014. Airdronians found themselves digging out after more than 20 centimetres of snow fell on the city because of an arctic ridge of unseasonably cold air that hovered over most of Rocky View County.
The storm caused a number of trees to break under the weight of the heavy snow.
“Heavier snowfall amounts were recorded in Calgary. In fact, on the west side, we had amounts as high as 40 to 45 centimetres of snow,” McMurtry said.
“Airdrie didn’t get quite that much. Once you got to a lower elevation, closer to Highway 2, then the amounts were less.”
Environment Canada has released an annual list of top weather events in Canada since 1996. The list is compiled by Environment Canada’s Senior Climatologist David Phillips.
“David Phillips will collect information from across Canada and look at things such as impact on people and property as well as economic impact,” McMurtry said.
