Separate hailstorms bring 2,500 claims to date

Two hailstorms in late July have resulted in about 2,500 property and auto claims to date, a spokesman for Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) told Canadian Underwriter Tuesday.

The storms ripped through Saskatchewan on July 22-23 and July 27-28. The larger of the storms resulted in 2,018 weather-related claims (1,379 auto and 639 property), said Tyler McMurchy, manager of media relations with SGI. The vast majority of the claims (1,623) are related to hail damage, with another 371 attributed to wind.

“We definitely saw golf ball-sized hail in the Foam Lake area on July 22,” McMurchy said. “This storm hit the Foam Lake area hardest, but we also saw claims from as far away as North Battleford.”

Foam Lake, in the southeast part of the province, is a 374-kilometre drive from North Battleford, in the west-central part of Saskatchewan.

The second storm saw 478 total claims (428 auto and 50 property), with all but four being attributed to hail. “On July 27, we saw hail up to softball size in spots in the Duck Mountain area, which put some holes in the roofs of camper trailers,” McMurchy said. Duck Mountain is in southeast Saskatchewan, near the Manitoba border. “The damage was less widespread [than the first storm], though.”

Kyle Fougere, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, told CTV News that the first event brought widespread thunderstorms to the province, with wind gusts in Lloydminster (which straddles the border between Saskatchewan and Alberta) recorded at 115 km/h. Regina saw 140 km/h wind gusts, localized flooding and large hail, while Saskatoon saw wind gusts of up to 96 km/h.

McMurchy said he doesn’t yet have a solid financial estimate of the insured damage, but SGI is not expecting that the storms will meet the threshold of a catastrophe as set out by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (more than $25 million insured damage).

Feature image via iStock.com/djedzura