Insured damage from Calgary hailstorm in July nearly doubles

The cost of a hailstorm that swept through Calgary in July has nearly doubled from initial estimates, according to new data from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ).

Insured damage from the July 13, 2025 event was originally pegged at $92 million, but that total increased 78% to $164 million, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) says in a Sept. 12 press release.

Commercial losses increased significantly in the latest estimate, IBC reports. Damage to vehicles represented more than half of all claims from the storm.

One day after the storm, Canadian Underwriter reported adjusters were responding to damage from the high winds, heavy rain and large hailstones.

Adjusters reported damage from shredded vinyl siding and broken windows, while social media and news reports showed trees torn from the ground, toppled street signs and toonie-sized hailstones.

“It’s been another catastrophic year for hailstorms in Alberta,” says Aaron Sutherland, vice president of IBC’s Pacific and Western regions. “The July 13 Calgary hailstorm storm caused significant damage to vehicles, homes and businesses.”

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Alberta has now experienced at least one major hailstorm every year for the past two decades, including last year’s record $3.2 billion hailstorm that hit Calgary, Sutherland says. “This has resulted in more than $10 billion in insured damage. [In] the past five years alone damage from hailstorms has accounted for $6 billion of that total.”

On Aug. 20, another major hailstorm hit Brooks, Alta., causing significant damage. An initial estimate of the cost associated with that event will be available in the coming weeks, IBC adds.

Claims from the July and August storms will take time to resolve, Sutherland says.

“There will be a high demand for contractors to fix siding and roofs, and a high demand for replacement vehicles and auto body repairs,” he says. “This will add additional costs pressures on Alberta’s challenging insurance market…”

For years, insurers have been calling on all orders of government to better protect Canadians from natural disasters. IBC says in Alberta, that must include efforts to:

• Revive Calgary’s Resilient Roofing Rebate Program, which provided homeowners with financial assistance to retrofit their homes to protect them from hail damage
• Mandate the use of hail-resistant roofing and siding for all new construction in high-risk areas
• Improve hail notification services so that residents are better able to prepare and move vehicles out of harm’s way when a storm is coming.

Jason Contant

Jason has been an award-winning journalist with Canadian Underwriter for more than a decade, including the past three years as associate editor and, before that, as digital editor for seven years.