July 15
Good day for weather watching today!
Supercells boiled up off the foothills around 4pm so we headed west to see what was up. This was up!
This cell was out by Rocky, heading northeast. We went west to another cell south of Caroline that was building rapidly.
It had already formed up a lowered base by the time we found a good spot for a photo.
It must have gotten a kick from a jet stream because in about 10 minutes it changed direction from NE to SE and picked up speed, so we bailed and reversed direction.
It started to form up a squall line with a shelf cloud and was threatening the flower patch, so we headed home to drop B off for garden detail.
After a quick stop at home, I headed off for Olds to try and get in front of the front. By the time I got to Innisfail, the sky was black to the west except for the green strip above the angry looking shelf cloud. A mad dash down hwy2 to Bowden had me wondering if I was going to make it or get stuck right in the middle. Halfway from Bowden to Olds, a ~100kmh wind strafed the highway, bringing traffic from 120khm to a halt immediately. We did get going again in time to avoid getting hailed on.
Olds was south of it all, so I went west there to get in behind the storm and see if there was anything spinning in there. By this time the storm was a big mess and nothing could be seen but fog and rain, so I cruised around looking to see if there had been any damage.
About 5 miles west of Bowden the hail drifts started, mostly small stuff, dime size. Half of Bowden got plenty of dime sized hail, the other half got rain.
Talked to a fellow in town who said he had friends east of town reporting baseball sized hail, so I went out for a look.
A few tree branches down on the county roads but really not a lot of noticeable damage. About 8 miles SE of Bowden I spot these in a field. The big one is 65mm, or just under 3″. Biggest Hail I have seen in these parts.
I looked around a bit but couldn’t find giant hail anywhere else, it must have been in a narrow strip. Plenty of pea to nickel sized hail though. A few chewed crops but much less than I was expecting to see out there.
These are the hail covered grounds of the Nisbet community hall, ~10km east of Bowden.
And to top it off, a nice display of mammatus at sunset. Good Day!
