Massive hail, floods, and quakes: Natural disasters of 2022 in Alberta
Alberta can have some wild weather, with extreme heat in the summer to bitter cold in the winter, large hail, and even earthquakes.
We rounded up some of the wildest natural disasters to occur in Alberta in 2022, including an event that set a weather record for Canada.
Extreme rain event in western/southern Alberta
Laine Mitchell/Daily Hive | @attila_thefun/Twitter
A massive rainstorm drenched parts of Alberta in June, raising water levels in numerous rivers and streams, resulting in jaw-dropping videos of waterfalls west of Calgary swelling in size in a matter of hours. The event was so great that the City of Calgary even declared a local state of emergency due to the massive rainstorm threat that was at the time forecasted to dump 150+ mm in some areas.
Large earthquake rattles northern Alberta
Earthquake seismograph/Shutterstock
A rattle was felt by many in early December when a 5.1 magnitude quake struck northern Alberta. Originally pegged at a 5.8 magnitude, it was felt strongly close to the small community of Reno and lightly felt in eastern British Columbia and western Alberta. Numerous aftershocks followed the main quake as well.
Wildfire disrupts Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park/Facebook
The Chetamon wildfire in early September disrupted Jasper National Park heavily, with the municipality of Jasper urging people to not visit the townsite at one point due to the area undergoing power restoration due to the blaze. At last count in early November, the fire charred approximately 6,450 hectares.
The largest hailstone in Canadian history part of massive summer hailstorm
@NHP_field/Twitter
Summer storms in Alberta can be ferocious, and one hailstorm in June produced the largest hailstone ever recorded in Canada.
The stone was discovered by Western University’s Northern Hail Project (NHP) field team, following a storm earlier this week near Markerville, just southwest of Red Deer.
The hefty hailstone weighed more than 292 grams, eclipsing the previous record holder of 290 grams collected in Cedoux, Saskatchewan, on July 31, 1973. The previous Alberta record hailstone fell during the Edmonton tornado on July 31, 1987. That stone weighed 264 grams with a diameter of 104 millimetres.
Jackie Fraser/Facebook | Bob Wells/Facebook
The storm that dropped the record-breaking hailstone also dinged and damaged numerous vehicles that were on the Queen Elizabeth II highway at the time, including one motorist who videotaped the terrifying ordeal.
Two Alberta tornadoes declared catastrophes
@isable_ONwx/Twitter | @FLTStorm/Twitter
Two tornadoes that struck Alberta in July were declared catastrophes by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc., the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). The storms that were designated as catastrophes were the tornado that struck the Bergen area on July 7 that damaged numerous homes, and another in Redcliff on July 18. Both tornadoes were given a preliminary rating of EF-2 by Environment and Climate Change Canada and under the catastrophe classification, each incident is expected to exceed $30 million in insured losses.