Late summer storm hits Coaldale

Posted on August 20, 2026 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

The Town of Coaldale was hit by a late summer storm last week, bringing heavy rains and devastating hail to the community and nearby farmer’s fields.  

The southeast moving storm south of Calgary swept through several towns and outlying areas on Aug. 11, including Claresholm, Nobleford, Barons, Barnwell, Taber, and Coaldale, leaving gardens and fields damaged by hail, localized flooding and various degrees of destruction in several communities. 

“The weather alert had come out several times late afternoon and just before 7 p.m. we had a devastating hail storm here in Coaldale,” said Coaldale Mayor Van Rijn. “(There was) significant hail and it did quite a bit of damage. I feel really, really bad for our farming community because they are just a week away from harvest – silaging is going on as we speak – and to have something like this happen, it’s devastating.” 

The mayor noted the heavy rainfall and hail that contributed to clogged drain pipes across town that evening. 

“We had almost an inch and a quarter of rain (33 millimetres) that came within 15 or 20 minutes so that’s a significant volume of water,” he said, noting the large volume of water collected in the streets but did not result in flooding for residents. “Then with the hail, it plugged several of our storm water drains. We had residents that stepped up and did some work to clear those storm drains so that the water could start draining again,” said Van Rijn. 

Jennifer Kowal, operational meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said Coaldale was one of several communities in southern Alberta that was hit by a line of severe thunderstorms that day. 

“It was not just a single storm system but it was a line of severe thunderstorms and they were super cell, but non-tornadic super cell. That means there is rotation in the storm but it’s not creating any funnelling,” said Kowal. 

She noted the line of storms continued for an approximate two hour-period, but did not stay over any particular area for a long time. 

“It looks like it was less than an hour in each area, and it was just a very intense hour or so,” said Kowal, noting the line of storms weakened as they moved eastward. “Southern Alberta bore the brunt of the alerts and the most severe weather. As the afternoon gets longer, there’s less heat on the ground to keep them moving.”