The Northern Hail Project: uncovering the meteorology, climatology, and impacts of hailstorms in Canada

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The Northern Hail Project, in partnership with the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, Weatherlogics, and Instant Weather, addresses key data and knowledge gaps for hail and advances our understanding of hail occurrence, impacts and damages across Canada in order to, ultimately, develop/improve means for managing the associated risks and reducing our vulnerability to hail. A unique ambition of the Northern Hail Project is to capture all possible data related to damaging hail events systematically across Canada using a wide range of methods and tools. Our approach will eventually enable us to assess the impacts of damaging storm and wind-driven hail events on infrastructure and people who are exposed to extreme weather-related hazards. The developed databases, observational and analytical climatologies, warning systems and risk models for severe and extreme hailstorms can be used for the development of adaptation measures, which may be particularly beneficial for isolated and marginalized communities as well as large cities such as Calgary. The Northern Hail Project will train 55 Highly Qualified Personnel, consisting of 1 Postdoctoral researcher, 10 Doctoral students, 7 Masters students , and 37 summer research interns, offering them the hands-on experiences needed to fill gaps in industry related to the impacts and assessments of severe storms. Trainees will be involved in the operation of the equipment and its deployment and gain valuable data analysis and coding skills. They will exploit the vast amount of measured data for maximum scientific and societal benefit. Collectively, trainees will acquire multi-disciplinary capabilities and experiences that position them for future opportunities dealing with extreme weather and its impacts.