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<\/p>\nA severe thunderstorm with golf ball-sized hail could arrive in Calgary between Sunday afternoon and early evening, according to Environment Canada, causing unusually significant damage.<\/p>\n
The weather agency issued an orange-tiered thunderstorm watch, meaning the storm isn\u2019t imminent but likely, said Todd Bate, lead meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. Warnings are generally issued half an hour before the weather event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe watch in effect is because yesterday we\u2019ve observed a number of large damaging hailstorms over central Alberta, and we\u2019ve seen that the weather regime move southwards into southern Alberta,\u201d Bate said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019re concerned particularly about hail for this region.\u201d<\/p>\n
The damage from the hail, at its worst, could be comparable to the storm in 2024, which inflicted upwards of $3 billion in insurance claims while destroying parts of the roof of Calgary\u2019s International Airport.<\/p>\n
Bate ascribed the conditions to a pocket of cold, turbulent air high up in the atmosphere that is rolling into the region, creating an environment that is highly unstable. Higher temperatures further destabilize those conditions by pushing hot air higher toward the cold winds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did anticipate the potential for severe weather yesterday in some areas of Red Deer. It was a little bit more intense, perhaps, than we anticipated with our watch, so that\u2019s why we have a higher level watch for today,\u201d Bate said.<\/p>\n
He advised Calgarians to monitor weather alerts and heed the agency\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you hear lightning is getting nearby, that\u2019s when we\u2019d ask you to go indoors,\u201d Bate said. \u201cIn fact, we have a saying, when thunder roars, go indoors.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rain didn\u2019t damper Day 3 of the Calgary Stampede Rodeo in Calgary on Sunday, July 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Stampede prepared for weather<\/p>\n
Kerrie Blizzard, director of public safety and environment at Calgary Stampede, said the organizing teams of different events are receiving weather updates by the minute. For example, the risk of damage for a larger ride is higher than other outdoor events. As a result, different events with various levels of risk have their weather tracking systems.<\/p>\n
Blizzard also said the festival has mass notification systems that will send out notifications to all organizers and the public. The festival has contingency plans in place, including cancelling outdoor shows ahead of a severe storm, but has the capacity to restore the event once the weather clears.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing about Calgary weather is that it changes fairly rapidly,\u201d Blizzard said, encouraging visitors to try out the festival\u2019s indoor programming.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a ton of indoor opportunities for our guests to enjoy some great entertainment while we have inclement weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catch up with the day\u2019s headlines, curated by our editors and delivered to your email inbox at lunchtime on every business day. Sign up now for the Calgary Herald Noon News Roundup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A severe thunderstorm with golf ball-sized hail could arrive in Calgary between Sunday afternoon and early evening, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,202360,48,219189,14881,276925,18001,14357,276924],"class_list":["post-782580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-stampede","tag-canada","tag-environment-and-climate-change-canada","tag-environment-canada","tag-kerrie-blizzard","tag-severe-thunderstorm","tag-severe-weather","tag-todd-bate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}