[freeweed]

Time to start a thread on this, as everyone gets power/Internet back and starts the cleanup. Let's keep it all here so we can share what the news doesn't report on.

Few tidbits that no one's mentioned yet:

- Chinook LRT was under water. Completely under water. The south LRT line was closed for several hours from what I gather

- Lost my computer to a surge last night. You always have that "should I unplug it or am I overreacting" thought.. well, next time I think I'll unplug

- Too many morons driving trucks don't seem to understand that going SLOWER IS BETTER - kicking up waves of water not only is more likely to flood your engine, you're creating mini-tsunamis that end up potentially flooding homes. I wish I was exaggerrating here, but I saw several houses that otherwise would have been dry get water into their basement windows this way. If you cannot naviagate a flooded road at low speed, DON'T DRIVE THROUGH IT. Idiots. :hell:

- The Rocky Ridge Rd connection to Crowchild CANNOT close. Royal Oak was literally cut off last night, and is still partially this morning, at Country Hills Blvd. The city is going to have to come up with some plan to make an interchange at Crowchild, because otherwise you have an entire community trapped

- local news is pathetic - once Internet/satellite started working, they had no new information, no footage of anything past maybe 8:30pm, nothing. The news should have been putting on emergency bulletins by 9pm saying STAY THE HELL HOME. A lot of people got stranded last night when they decided to go out after the rain lessened, thinking things would get better. They didn't.

- lightning striking less than 100m from you, when you're outdoors, is the scariest thing to experience, hands down

[The Kid]

My next door neighbours house got completely flooded last night and 24th street S.W. just to the south of Southland Drive was a lake with several vehicles submerged. This all happened within 5 minutes once the rain opened up. It was huge.

[dubiousmike]

The Bow is going to break its banks today. Water was just starting to creep over the bike path under the north side of the Louise Bridge when I was walking to work.

[raisethehammer]

never been to Calgary but I've heard about the massive sprawl growth. Is the huge amount of pavement (loss of green land) contributing to this flooding?
We've had that happen in Hamilton the past couple years. Storm run-off from the new sprawl in the upper city (Hamilton is a two-tiered city) comes over the Niagara Escarpment into the lower city storm drains and floods homes and basements due to the huge amounts of water.
The city is considering putting a hold on sprawl growth in the suburbs until this problem is rectified as it's been found that the new parking lots and roads on what used to be green lands were adding significantly to the urban runoff.

[srperrycgy]

So were any of the "dry" ponds built across the city over the past few years actually working as intended??

[freeweed]

never been to Calgary but I've heard about the massive sprawl growth. Is the huge amount of pavement (loss of green land) contributing to this flooding?


Ironically enough, one of the reasons Calgary sprawls so much is that we RETAIN a butt-ton of green space between neighbourhoods, within neighbourhoods, etc. Our sprawl wouldn't be half as bad if we just packed us all in as tight as possible and didn't waste any space on things other than concrete and asphalt.

Or are you confusing sprawl with growth, like so many other people seem to? ;)

Most of the flooding comes because a) the city is hilly everywhere, so there are a lot of low-lying areas surrounded by hills, and b) we simply aren't designed for this volume of water (storm sewer capacity, road grading, etc). Expect this to be called the "storm of the century" by the end of the day. Certainly the worst in 50 years or more. NO city is equipped to deal with water of this volume that only occurs once every century or so.

[Innersoul1]

I had a crazy drive home last night! My boss chose to leave the sales centre at 6:40pm as he is pretty particular about his car and didn't want to get stuck in hail. I chose to close up at 7 and then left the office by 7:15.

1) A pickup hydro-planed and was pinned up under the Anderson/McLeod overpass by a semi truck.

2) Took 14th St. SW home all was smooth sailing until I reached Glenmore landing near Heritage park and the rain started coming down like the dickens! Water had pretty much closed down the intersection at 14th and Heritage, 1 lane in each direction was able to geth through. Of course I love to see trucks getting stuck.

3) Took me 45 mins to get from Heritage on to Glenmore as the on-ramp was down to one lane. Funny site was a guy in a BMW M3 stopped on the Glenmore Causeway, he was using a water bottle to get water out of his car interior...The stuff was mud brown! Poor guy!

3) Crowchild from Glenmore to Dowtown was a MESS! lots of flooded sections down to one lane.

4) The Bow trail off-ramp from Crowchild was like a river. One of the man-holes on the hillside near Sunalta school had blown its lid at water was shooting out down the hill like a waterfall.

5) 9th Ave near the Roadhouse was flooded on both sides (as it was this morning) only one lane could pass up the middle.

6) All of those underpasses from 9th -10th Ave were CRAZY flooded! The fifth street underpass had two vehicles stuck underneath up to their roofs in water.

7) Picked up my wife at Scotia Centre and then had to drive ALL THE WAY back to Garrison! Yikes! Gotta love a 2.5 hour trip home.

[bluenoser]

- lightning striking less than 100m from you, when you're outdoors, is the scariest thing to experience, hands down

You're not kidding. I wasn't aware this storm was on the way and our frisbee game in the NW was gradually surrounded by lightning clouds, before the rain hit (hard) and we hightailed it!

A little rain never hurt anyone, but a little lightning certainly has.

[Innersoul1]

Thought I might add a couple of three videos from youtube of the storm yesterday. Not that many posted as of yet.

Lightning, looks to be shot from the Queen Elizabeth apartments across from McMahon. As the description says the "money shot" is a 55 secs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5XHuPXpS5E

Some residential street flooding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYMQ_k5rMrQ

[Calgarian]

The Bow is going to break its banks today. Water was just starting to creep over the bike path under the north side of the Louise Bridge when I was walking to work.

I hope not.

[You Need A Thneed]

So were any of the "dry" ponds built across the city over the past few years actually working as intended??

The dry ponds definately do work, I didn't check any out yesterday, but I've seen them full other times.

I went and helped out some friends a bit in Whitehorn who had the storm drain back up, they ended up with 1.5 inches of water in their basement, it was drained back into the drain by the time I got there. I just helped them move into the place on Saturday, and there were lots of boxes full of stuff that were just put into the basement.

My parents home (also in Whitehorn) had an inch of water in some of the basement too - came in through a basement window, not due to flooding in the streets, but due to poor drainage around the window and in the window well I guess.

Tons of cars stalled out when I drove around last night. The low spot in the off ramp from Mcknight Westbound to 36th Street Southbound - there were about 8 cars stalled there, most not even sitting in a puddle any more. The puddle that they were in must have been huge.

Castleridge Safeway and Superstore (by McKnight Westwinds Station) were both closed early yesterday evening due to flooding. The cashier at the Safeway at 32nd/36th NE said they almost closed due to flooding too. The puddle in the parking lot there was still huge, and this was 2 hours after the worst part of the storm - I wonder wether they might have had water on their floor.

The lights at the intersection of Falconridge Blvd/ Falconridge Drive were completely out this morning - but they were working last night around midnight when I drive by. That intersection backs up if there is any tiny thing wrong, never mind it acting like a 4 way stop. I guess in the scheme of things around the city, that intersection is pretty minor compared to some of the other issues.

[Calgarian]

Expect this to be called the "storm of the century" by the end of the day. Certainly the worst in 50 years or more. NO city is equipped to deal with water of this volume that only occurs once every century or so.

I don't know if I would call it the storm of the century, but it was pretty intense. lol

[You Need A Thneed]

- Chinook LRT was under water. Completely under water. The south LRT line was closed for several hours from what I gather


I guessing based on the reports I've heard, that the NE line must have been shut down last night too, it looked like there was 3 ft of water at 36th Street/5th Ave from the picture in the paper. I think I heard that some of the car dealers around there had quite a few submerged cars too.

[entheosfog]

I missed most of storm as I was seeing a movie at the Movie Dome. But when I got out I was lucky to see my car was only in 2" of water, compared with the other side of the parking lot which had some cars half-submerged. Most of the roads around the area were closed off as they were completely flooded, including many areas of the Marlborough Ford parking lots. Brand new cars ruined! There were some cars on 36 Street almost completely under water and the only way out was 36 street north bound. Of course, once on 16th, most of the lights were on flash so it took me over an hour to get back downtown. And I guess staying off the Deerfoot was a wise choice.
Once I got downtown it looked like it had only rained normally there.
A crazy, chaotic night it was.
Wish I didn't miss the rain, though!

Edit: ^^^^that's what I'm talking about!

[raisethehammer]

I don't know if I would call it the storm of the century, but it was pretty intense. lol


believe me, in Hamilton, we've been there.
We had two storms in 8 months that were both given the term "storm of the century". Then we had a huge storm with a tornado tearing through the city in November of all months.
The climate has been changing as we all know, and we've realized that 'storms of the century' are happening more often now.

When I say 'sprawl' I mean low-density, car dependant development that requires massive parking lots, highways and 4-car driveways everywhere.
Keeping greenspace in your development would actually help your rainfall situation. Green land (parks, fields, farms etc...) absorbs water whereas parking lots, driveways etc.... puts all that water into the sewer system. Cities that have 'grown' a lot in recent decades have skimped on the underground services and then end up with big storms like this that the system can't handle. I don't know the mathematical equations, but think of all the rainwater coming down that used to soak into fields or farms. Now it runs down the street into the sewer. Again, I've never been to Calgary but your discussion reminded me so much of ones we've had in Hamilton over the past few years that even our city council that has been controlled by developers for decades has come to the conclusion that we can't keep paving over everything and flooding out huge hunks of the city whenever it rains.

[Jarrod]

The lights were browning out at Foothills yesterday...

Does anyone else get massive headaches durning thuner and lightening? I've never until I moved here.

[You Need A Thneed]

believe me, in Hamilton, we've been there.
We had two storms in 8 months that were both given the term "storm of the century". Then we had a huge storm with a tornado tearing through the city in November of all months.
The climate has been changing as we all know, and we've realized that 'storms of the century' are happening more often now.

When I say 'sprawl' I mean low-density, car dependant development that requires massive parking lots, highways and 4-car driveways everywhere.
Keeping greenspace in your development would actually help your rainfall situation. Green land (parks, fields, farms etc...) absorbs water whereas parking lots, driveways etc.... puts all that water into the sewer system. Cities that have 'grown' a lot in recent decades have skimped on the underground services and then end up with big storms like this that the system can't handle. I don't know the mathematical equations, but think of all the rainwater coming down that used to soak into fields or farms. Now it runs down the street into the sewer. Again, I've never been to Calgary but your discussion reminded me so much of ones we've had in Hamilton over the past few years that even our city council that has been controlled by developers for decades has come to the conclusion that we can't keep paving over everything and flooding out huge hunks of the city whenever it rains.

When it rains as hard as it did yesterday, it doesn't matter wether soemthing is paved or wether it is green space. The green space can only absorb so much water before everything just starts running off of it too.

When it rains like it did yesterday, there's almost nothing that could be done to prevent localized flooding. I suppose one could build a massive storm system that would cost at least 10 times as much as the ones that they do put in (which already look massive when everything is dry).

[mersar]

We got lucky out in Cochrane, no major flooding, only the usual backed up storm sewers in the older neighborhoods (which generally won't cause anything but flooded streets) due to the ridiculous storm water system we have. 1A into the city was a bit dicey, few people hydroplaning a bit, and once you hit the construction just before Nosehill there was a good sized puddle that you didn't see until you were already in it.

The few storm water ponds along Crowchild were pretty full, as well as the low area on the SW corner of the Crowchild/Sarcee overpass which was completely submerged. And the Stoney Trail pit was also nicely submerged from what I saw, a few workers got called in this morning and were trying to get some pumps going on one side as there was a good sized pond forming near the lip of the pit as well.

Biggest fear now is flooding, the Bow was looking pretty high and we have a few very low stretches along it so I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to start sandbagging parts by this afternoon as a precaution.

[Boris2k7]

The lines were running fine this morning, at least the south one (don't know about the north lines). On the news this morning they of course said that it was a month's worth of rain yesterday.

[The Kid]

Ironically enough, one of the reasons Calgary sprawls so much is that we RETAIN a butt-ton of green space between neighbourhoods, within neighbourhoods, etc. Our sprawl wouldn't be half as bad if we just packed us all in as tight as possible and didn't waste any space on things other than concrete and asphalt.

Or are you confusing sprawl with growth, like so many other people seem to? ;)

Most of the flooding comes because a) the city is hilly everywhere, so there are a lot of low-lying areas surrounded by hills, and b) we simply aren't designed for this volume of water (storm sewer capacity, road grading, etc). Expect this to be called the "storm of the century" by the end of the day. Certainly the worst in 50 years or more. NO city is equipped to deal with water of this volume that only occurs once every century or so.

Didn't we have a couple of "storms of the century" in June 04??? I remember it raining for close to 30 days straight and major flooding in Mission and other areas of the city. First and only time my house flooded was back then too.

[Paper Boy]

The channel 7 coverage on you tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfpJoVqL9eg

[mersar]

The Kid: June 2005 actually, and it was closer to a week.

As for the comment about the access to Rocky Ridge / Royal Oak, the end plan is that country hills will be extended all the way out to 12 mile coulee before the current intersection is removed, and even then I have heard rumors that the intersection won't be fully removed, they may leave the westbound Crowchild to Rocky Ridge road lane in place (the one reasoning was something to do with emergency access into the community in regards to the fire department and also transit supposedly preferred that versus having to route all the way north and back in)

[jeffwhit]

You guys know you can embed youtube vids right in your posts?

par example:

IfpJoVqL9eg
just use the {youtube}{/youtube} tags around the last part of the video url, everything after 'v=' (IfpJoVqL9eg) for example.
I was as a movie at Eau Claire during the worst of it, but the thunder was actually drowning out the film, Prince's island was really swamped out. I live almost a full block off Memorial so i should be fine.

[feepa]

City of Calgary
10:29 AM MDT Wednesday 6 June 2007
Rainfall warning for
City of Calgary continued

Another 30 to 50 millimetres of rain this afternoon for Airdrie and Calgary.



Radar shows some heavy rainshowers moving through the Airdrie and Calgary regions. Another 30 to 50 millimetres of rain is possible by this afternoon. The rain is expected to taper off by evening.

City of Calgary
10:29 AM MDT Wednesday 6 June 2007
Rainfall warning for
City of Calgary continued

Another 30 to 50 millimetres of rain this afternoon for Airdrie and Calgary.



Radar shows some heavy rainshowers moving through the Airdrie and Calgary regions. Another 30 to 50 millimetres of rain is possible by this afternoon. The rain is expected to taper off by evening.

[freeweed]

Does anyone else get massive headaches durning thuner and lightening? I've never until I moved here.

It's the very fast air pressure changes that we see here. I also get headaches when a chinook blows in.

Take the bad with the good, I say. :)

[lubicon]

So were any of the "dry" ponds built across the city over the past few years actually working as intended??

The one at the end of my street was (and still is as of this morning) filled to the brim and working as designed.

[lubicon]

This was one of the nastier storms I have seen in the 10 years I have lived here. While it has has rained heavily in the past I can't recall it raining so heavily for such a long period of time. Usually these storms dump for 20-30 minutes max and move on, this one did for a few hours. They say officially we got 72mm which is a single day record (at least for June 5) but it wouldn't surprise me if we got more than that in places.

I live in Tuscany and was doing some work on my computer last night when I heard the fire trucks coming into the community. A few minutes later you could smell something burning. Turns out the house that was hit by lightning was about 2 blocks from mine. I drove past just before 11 and the fire trucks were still there and the guys were crawling all over the house mopping up. The place was light up like the middle of day. The news showed the house burned pretty good. I feel for those people. We took a lightning strike 2 years ago that fried a bunch of stuff in our house (furnace, smoke detector, cable TV, computer etc) but luckily no damage to the house. It happened right after I got home from work and was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had. A bright flash followed instantly by a crash that made me drop to the floor in reaction.

Driving around Tuscany last night, most of the alleys that were gravelled were washed out onto the paved streets, and the gravel is not the small pea sized stuff but rather the bigger 1 inch or so rock.

Mother nature put on a hell of a show last night.

[atlas_inc]

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/7629/wetwh1.jpg

[davee930]

i was golfing that was fun

[freeweed]

Thanks for sharing those zzebian. They've been circulating around in e-mail today and I just didn't have time to post them.

Nice parkade shot. :(

[The_Bachelor]

Anymore pictures around? There should be lots out there, let's get them all posted in the thread. That pond that formed on northbound deerfoot at 16th ave was pretty impressive, surprised it drained so quickly.

[Claeren]

- The Rocky Ridge Rd connection to Crowchild CANNOT close. Royal Oak was literally cut off last night, and is still partially this morning, at Country Hills Blvd. The city is going to have to come up with some plan to make an interchange at Crowchild, because otherwise you have an entire community trapped


This comment is absurd.

Twelve Mile Coulee Road is one other option. And there will be future secondary northerly exit options as well.

Furthermore, the primary Country Hills option was only cut off because the construction around that area has left (1) roads lower than they will otherwise be, (2) drainage sewers more limited than they will otherwise be and (3) drainage ponds not yet in place that would otherwise relieve pressure from the road and the storm sewers.

Likewise with the intersection at Crowchild and Nosehill (and manyy others).

In fact it seems that all of the worst spots were in places that are undergoing nearby construction projects (usually major interchanges).




Claeren.

[Rise_of_the_West]

Up here on the westside hills, we only caught the tail end of the rain, but no means what the North got. However i got to watch the storm build up to the SW, and it was amazing. It started over the south side of the native reserve, moved into south calgary, then rocketed northeast.

And i've never seen lighting like that in calgary before. At one point i think there was about 10 strikes in one minute. Amazing show.

[freeweed]

This comment is absurd.

Twelve Mile Coulee Road is one other option. And there will be future secondary northerly exit options as well.

Furthermore, the primary Country Hills option was only cut off because the construction around that area has left (1) roads lower than they will otherwise be, (2) drainage sewers more limited than they will otherwise be and (3) drainage ponds not yet in place that would otherwise relieve pressure from the road and the storm sewers.

Likewise with the intersection at Crowchild and Nosehill (and manyy others).

In fact it seems that all of the worst spots were in places that are undergoing nearby construction projects (usually major interchanges).

While your observation about the worst places is correct (interchange construction, new developements where the city has blocked off the storm sewers, etc), I think "absurd" is a bit strong. You cannot get to 12 mile coulee Rd from Royal Oak right now, unless you drive through (in the case of last night) 2 partially-flooded communities. The extension of Country Hills hasn't happened, and at this rate may be years away.

Call it poor planning on the part of the city, but neighbourhoods with a single (or even double) exit can be hazardous and must have better access to the primary road system - if that's better graded roads and improved sewers, so be it.

Fact is, as of this morning dozens of vehicles are still sitting in the middle of the road, on people's lawns, blocking driveways - all because the natural exit points from the area were nearly unreachable. Never mind if you didn't drive a 4x4. There was a near-constant stream of people who looked like refugees trying to make their way out of the area. There was simply nowhere to go. Hell, even walking was nigh-impossible in some places (4' of water, or walk through foot-deep mud, or maybe you can scale a fence or 6?). Closing off access further could only have made the problem worse.

Yes, it was that bad in some parts.

I guess I could have phrased my initial comment more along the line of "the city should close down Rocky Ridge Rd access until the rest of the damn road system actually works in inclement weather". ;)

[Calgarian]

i was golfing that was fun

I hear a golfer was killed by lightning yesterday...

[The Chemist]

Just checked Environment Canada - 72.4 millimetres of rain recorded yesterday! Holy crap! I wish I'd been in Calgary to see THAT. I hope no flooding at my place in the southeast.

[freeweed]

Just checked Environment Canada - 72.4 millimetres of rain recorded yesterday! Holy crap! I wish I'd been in Calgary to see THAT. I hope no flooding at my place in the southeast.

And keep in mind this is the official, recorded at the airport measure.

Coupla climate guys I've talked to say we could have easily seen 100+mm in some parts of the city. I'd believe it - I've never in my life seen water rise so fast.

[greenboy]

There was a nice pic in the middle of the Sun today of what looks like Chocolate getting hit by lightning - it's a bit blurry and gloomy but I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

[SpongeG]

i saw some coverage on CBC news today here in BC - showed some underpass completely under water with a few stranded vehicles pretty close to be submerged in it

also showed sidewalks buckeled and manholes breaking apart or something

i miss the good ole storms - we had some lightning here the other night and it was just not comparable :(

[clooless]

I was trying to get home from the Highfield area of town just after the majority of the downpour had ended and it was nigh impossible. The intersections of 12th Street and 46th Avenue SE, Blackfoot Trail and 58th Avenue SE, Heritage Drive and Heritage Meadows Way SE, Blackfoot Trail and 42nd Avenue SE and the 11th Street SE underpass to Glenmore Trail were all flooded and impassable. Just crazy.

Of my six years living in Calgary I've seen some pretty good storms over the years, but I don't ever recall so much rain at one time for such a long period. Also, I have never seen such persistent lightning in any storm. Flashes seemed to last for several seconds. Nature put on a spectacular show for us yesterday. Coming from Vancouver where lightning is a rarity, it is pretty awe inspiring.

[Blue_Cypress]

Just checked Environment Canada - 72.4 millimetres of rain recorded yesterday! Holy crap! I wish I'd been in Calgary to see THAT. I hope no flooding at my place in the southeast.

I suggest you have someone check up on your house. Most people have water in their homes.

[Xelebes]

There was some concern about flooding at my place in Edmonton - my street was at 1/4 crest and my backyard had some pooling but the pooling kept towards the middle and not near the windows. Winds were something - I saw some downed branches in neighbouring neighbourhoods.

[mersar]

Theres a handful of downed branches around Calgary as well, I'd guess most were damaged in the snowfall a few weeks back and this was just enough to bring them down.

The city has released the up to date list of whats still closed as of 8pm tonight, a few which may take a bit before they are reopened:
ROAD CLOSURES

1. Glenmore Trail underpass at Macleod Trail SE is now open
in both directions.

2. Northbound 14 Street NW from 8 Avenue NW to 16 Avenue NW
remains closed due to pavement damage. The northbound lanes
will not reopen until surface repairs are done which will
take several days. City crews are working on options to
restore northbound traffic.

3. Highfield Crescent SE remains closed due to ponded water.
Access from Bonnybrook Waste Water treatment area to
Highfield Crescent SE remains closed.

4. 68 Street NE remains closed at approximately 37 Avenue NE
as a result of two heaved manholes.

5. Westbound Country Hills Boulevard at Stoney Trail NW
remains closed due to flooding.

6. Heritage Drive under Glenmore Trail SE remains closed due
to flooding.

7. Beddington Trail west of Kincora Boulevard NW remains
closed due to flooding. They also note that there will be delays to projects such as GE5, no specifics though yet.

[freeweed]

5. Westbound Country Hills Boulevard at Stoney Trail NW
remains closed due to flooding.

Incorrect. The city should get on the ball here. It was open this morning, although barely passable. As of 5pm today, it was pretty much clear of water. Lotsa debris and mud mind you, and the pavement is AWFUL.

This road can't exactly be closed, it's the main way home for thousands of people.

[Calgarian]

I hope the rest of June is pretty dry! The Bow and Elbow looked pretty high today, and the spring runoff is just kicking into high gear. It wouldn't take a lot of rain to have a repeat of June 2005.

[ummagumma66]

some of the parking lots on 2 ave sw behind shaw had water at least 8-10 inches deep (at parts), also I noticed a sink hole forming on the SW corner of the Centennial Towers project. also the elbow river was just about to ready to burst it banks.

[CanadianCentaur]

Was hail reported in or around Calgary during that storm? I find it a little odd for such an intense storm that hail wasn't mentioned, if at all.



I live in Tuscany and was doing some work on my computer last night when I heard the fire trucks coming into the community. A few minutes later you could smell something burning. Turns out the house that was hit by lightning was about 2 blocks from mine. I drove past just before 11 and the fire trucks were still there and the guys were crawling all over the house mopping up. The place was light up like the middle of day. The news showed the house burned pretty good. I feel for those people. We took a lightning strike 2 years ago that fried a bunch of stuff in our house (furnace, smoke detector, cable TV, computer etc) but luckily no damage to the house. It happened right after I got home from work and was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had. A bright flash followed instantly by a crash that made me drop to the floor in reaction.

Driving around Tuscany last night, most of the alleys that were gravelled were washed out onto the paved streets, and the gravel is not the small pea sized stuff but rather the bigger 1 inch or so rock.

Mother nature put on a hell of a show last night.

I take it that was the burning house in shown on the YouTube video originally posted by PaperBoy and embedded by jeffwhit. If so, that is sure an awful situation for the homeowner to be in!

[Bigtime]

Holy shit!

I just missed this storm and saw it to the south as my flight was leaving for Winnipeg. I'm just very very glad that we were taking off heading north, or I think we would have been sitting on the tarmac for a while to wait it out.

Needless to say the departure out of Calgary was bumpy, with plenty of plateaus in the climb to divert around weather before continuing eastward.

I'm choked I missed it though, I love these big ass storms!

[0773|=\]

Yikes! Those pictures of Glenmore @ Macleod bring back memories of the storm that hit Edmonton in July, 2004. I'll never forget seeing an RV floating down the Whitemud under one of the 170 street overpasses where a "lake" had formed...

Did you guys get any hail piling up on your lawns?