Overview

• Western University’s Northern Hail Project deployed hail-protected vehicles with radar and lightning detectors to chase storms across Alberta’s ‘Hailstorm Alley’.
• Collected hailstones were preserved in a mobile freezer before being measured, weighed, photographed, 3D-scanned and replicated for detailed structural study.
• Exhibits at the open house included replicas ranging from walnut-sized pieces to a 12.3-centimetre, 300-gram model of the record Canadian hailstone.
• Preliminary data challenge long-held beliefs by indicating that hailstones accumulate the bulk of their mass in only one or two passes through a storm.
• The project aims to refine forecasting models and mitigation strategies to curb hundreds of millions of dollars in annual agricultural, infrastructural and aviation losses.