LEO Network

13 July 2025
Background

Severe hailstorm sweeps through Calgary

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

A severe hailstorm in Calgary on July 13, 2025, caused $92 million in insured damage, highlighting the increasing frequency and severity of such events in Alberta's "Hail Belt" and underscoring the need for improved risk management and climate resilience strategies.

On July 13, 2025, a severe hailstorm swept through Calgary, causing approximately $92 million in insured damage. This time, vehicles took the brunt of the impact, accounting for about 65% of all claims arising from the storm. Calgary is located within a region often referred to as “Hail Belt”, an area prone to frequent and intense hailstorms. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (2025) notes that over the past two decades Alberta has experienced at least one major hailstorm annually, with cumulative insured damage surpassing $11 billion. In just the past five years, nearly $6 billion has been lost to hailstorms in the province.

This hail event represents more than an isolated extreme weather occurrence: it underscores persistent damage risks, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and the escalating costs to homeowners, insurers, and municipalities. I live in Calgary, and work in insurance, risk management and climate resilience and we continue to observe successive hailstorms that seem to intensify in frequency and severity. I selected this event because it provides quantifiable data and raises clear issues of adaptation, risk governance, and the burden of repeated severe storms on socio-economic systems; very similar to the ones I have with my peers in the industry.

AI Comment from GPT 5 Nano:

Comment:

  • This observation adds another data point to the ongoing Calgary hail trend. It aligns with prior Calgary- and Alberta-focused posts showing recurrent, high-cost hail events that stress infrastructure and insurance systems.

  • Related observations show the broader pattern of hail-driven damage across southern Alberta, including:

  • Implications for adaptation and risk governance in Calgary and the surrounding region have been noted across the related posts, including impacts on agriculture, infrastructure, and utilities, and the need for resilience planning in the face of repeated severe hail events.