Calgary Weather: Severe storms may bring 4 centimetre hail Tuesday
Calgary weather turns toward a severe thunderstorm risk on Tuesday, with storms possible in Calgary, Red Deer, Medicine Hat and other parts of the Prairies. The strongest cells could produce hail up to 4 centimetres, strong winds and power outages.
Hail- and wind-producing storms are forecast to track from central Alberta toward southwestern Saskatchewan through the afternoon and evening. The main hazards include large hail, strong winds above 90 km/h in organized storms and heavy downpours.
Calgary and Red Deer Tuesday
The risk covers a broad stretch of southern and central Alberta, then reaches into Saskatchewan. Cities facing the possibility of severe thunderstorms include Calgary, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Saskatoon and Regina.
Storms are expected to initiate midday northwest of Calgary before progressing southeasterly at 40 to 60 km/h. In the strongest storms, hail sizes of 2 to 4 cm are possible, a range that raises the chance of vehicle damage and other property impacts where storms track directly overhead.
Prairies storm setup
The severe weather setup is described as a sleeper event across parts of the Prairies, with a multi-day thunderstorm risk in Alberta and Saskatchewan this week. The lower one kilometre of the atmosphere is not supportive of tornadoes as a main hazard on Tuesday.
For Calgary and southern Alberta, the forecast pattern includes a strong jet stream nosing across the province off the Pacific Ocean, helping steer storms off the foothills and toward the southeast. That same flow has a history of producing wind-driven hail events as storms mature near the QE2.
Saturday low pressure
A significant low could develop over or just south of southern Alberta on Saturday, then track east across the region during the weekend. That system could bring heavy rain, thunderstorms and very windy conditions to the Prairies after Tuesday's severe-storm threat.
For readers in the storm path, Tuesday calls for attention to hail size, wind strength and the possibility of outages, with another round of unsettled weather possible later in the week.
