Last year, a single storm that subjected southern Alberta to severe wind, rain and hail cost Canadian insurers $450 million, bringing the province’s total payouts from natural disasters since 2011 to $4 billion, according to CBC News.
Meteorologists predict that this summer might bring more of the same damages.
“In the last seven years, it’s been increasingly worse,” Daniel Gilbert, chief meteorologist at Weather Modification Inc, told Global News. “Warmer and more moisture and a lot more hailstorms. All our project stats show a significant increase in the amount of hail damage and if you look at the amount of crop insurance claims, that indicates the same thing.”
In order to combat this threat, insurance companies in Alberta have joined together to invest $4.5 million in weather modification, the outlet reports.
In particular, the money will be directed towards weather suppression flights such as cloud seeding. This practice involves pilots who release chemical silver iodide, prompting the elements to release hail prematurely and before it becomes larger and more disastrous.
Alberta has a record of success in this endeavor. In August 2014, five aircrafts dispensed silver iodide over a period of 23 hours to mitigate the effects of a hailstorm that developed over Airdrie.
“That $500 million damage, even if we knock that down by 1 per cent, would pay for the whole project all season,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert launches cloud seeding efforts strategically, based on where the flights will have the largest impact.
“I give them the information they need to get to the right storm…the priority storm hitting the largest city to do the most good,” Gilbert told Global News. “And keep them out of harm’s way…make sure they don’t get boxed in and closed into a bad situation.”
