Calgary, Alberta — The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) has indicated that the hailstorm that hit the Calgary, Alberta area in early August has resulted in nearly $2.8 billion in insured losses—the second costliest event in Canada’s insurance history.
The storm in question specifically occurred on August 5, 2024, with Environment and Climate Change Canada reporting having received multiple calls of hailstones the size of chicken eggs.
The hailstorm further resulted in 130,000 insurance claims from automotive and personal property damages.
According to initial estimates from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ), this hailstorm is the second-costliest event in Canada’s insurance history, following the 2016 Fort McMurray, Alberta wildfire.
“Insurers paid out more in claims for this one hail event than the federal government has invested on climate adaption over the past decade,” said Craig Stewart, Vice President, Climate Change and Federal Issues, IBC.
Stewart continued that “the surging frequency and severity of floods, wildfires, hail and windstorms, represent an escalating threat to lives and property across Canada, yet governments have been vexingly slow to respond and have yet to enact the kinds of meaningful measures that would help Canadians prepare. Improved hail alerting that urges people to park their vehicles safely and stay indoors, improved building codes that incorporate hail resistant siding and roofing in high risk areas, and provincial and federal retrofit programs must be enacted to help families and businesses build resilience moving forward.”
For more information about the hail event, click here.
