With Alberta experiencing one of its stormiest summers yet, the hail-busting pilots of the Alberta Severe Weather Management Society (ASWMS) are busy making sure that the storms do not lead to severe and costly hailstorms.
The ASWMS has a total of 11 pilots. Together with the aid of three meteorologists on the ground, the pilots fly straight into the fiercest storm cells to break up hail using a process called cloud seeding—which involves firing off silver iodide flares into storm cells, which prevent hailstones from growing.
The organisation has been busting hailstorms since 1996.
The pilots have been so busy lately that they tackle an average of three storms a day, reported
The Calgary Sun. As of Tuesday, the team’s five planes have spent more than 220 hours in the air, seeding 69 storms in 23 days.
“The hail suppression project cannot eliminate hail, but the goal is to reduce the damage that could occur,” said ASWMS hail suppression program director Terry Knauss.
In recent times, hail has become a major problem for the insurance industry. According to estimates by the
Insurance Bureau of Canada, the country’s insurers paid out almost $2 billion in claims from hail damage in the past five years alone.
Southern Alberta, in particular, experiences some of the worst hailstorms in the country. In 2012, Calgary was pelted by hailstones the size of golf balls, causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage.
More recently, Alberta’s farmers have been filing crop insurance claims left and right following bouts of severe summer hailstorms, threatening to break the record set for the filing of such claims in 2012.
To counter these losses, the insurance industry invests approximately $6 million each year in ASWMS’ hail suppression project.
Knauss said that it is difficult to determine how much the hail suppression project saves insurers.
Radar imaging, however, reveals that the process is quite effective at lowering the intensity of storms.
“Reducing the hail damage by only a few percent more than pays for the program,” commented Knauss.
Related stories:
Late June storms caused $50 million in damage in southern Alberta: Insurance Bureau of Canada
Morning Briefing: Alberta storms caused $50 million insured damage
