Hail, wind left 200-km 'scar' across Alberta that's visible from space (www.cbc.ca)
from HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to world@lemmy.world on 07 Sep 2025 20:42
https://sh.itjust.works/post/45599735

Wind and hail that cut across the southern Alberta prairie last month left a “scar” visible from outer space.

On Aug. 20, 2025, 150-kilometre-per-hour gusts shredded crops and stripped grass and ground cover. The storm slashed from south of Calgary to Saskatchewan, affecting about 425,000 acres of insurable crops, plus pasture and native grassland.

That most intense zone of the storm — a sort of epicentre that dragged for hundreds of kilometres — left behind a “hail scar” that can be seen in satellite images published by U.S. space agency NASA.

A patchwork of green shades, representing crops, hay and clumps of trees is replaced by a smear measuring about 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) wide and 200 kilometres (124.3 miles) long.

#world

threaded - newest

knacht1@lemmy.world on 07 Sep 2025 22:06 next collapse

Sad.

T00l_shed@lemmy.world on 07 Sep 2025 22:28 next collapse

It will become far more common

[deleted] on 07 Sep 2025 23:06 next collapse
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CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org on 07 Sep 2025 23:24 next collapse

The damage on the ground was insane, by the way. Hail isn’t unusual here, nor hail damage. Usually it messes up roofing, knocks over crops and dents cars. Maybe smashes windshields if it’s really bad, that’s it. This time it basically ground off the top foot of anything soft. Crops were reduced to just stumps.

Accounts I’ve gotten from the people directly under it make me think it was more wind and quantity than raw size.

Boddhisatva@lemmy.world on 08 Sep 2025 00:45 collapse

“Crop damage in this swath was total, with grain crops levelled and corn left as mostly bare stalks,” it reads. “Even areas of grassland were pulverized, with grass root systems exposed and native shrubs denuded and debarked on their western facing sides.”

Holy cow!