More than 100 crop insurance claims have been filed following an intense thunderstorm that struck the parkland region of Manitoba Aug. 9, especially in the Grandview area.
A source at the insurance division of Manitoba Agriculture Services Corp. said a number of fields in the area had been hailed out.
Alvin Dykun, who farms near Gilbert Plains, said about 2,000 acres out of his 6,700 acre operation were wiped out. Another 2,000 acres suffered 50 to 60 percent loss, with the rest ranging from five to 25 percent damage.
Earlier last week, he had started bringing in a good crop. The 250 acres of wheat that he was able to combine before the storm yielded about 55 bushels to the acre.
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“I have enough hail insurance that I think I’ll be all right,” said Dykun.
“Still, it would’ve been nice to get the grain out because there will be a terrible mess to clean up. It’s just unbelievable how bad it hailed. I’ve never seen such a thing in my life.”
With hailstones the size of grapefruits, some of the vehicles he had out in the field were dinged badly and windows were smashed.
Crop damage in the area after the storm was “quite extensive,” stretching all the way from Roblin through to Ste. Rose, said Keith Watson, of Manitoba Agriculture in Dauphin.
Damage was reported as far south as the northern edge of Riding Mountain National Park and as far north as Winnipegosis, about 60 kilometres north of Dauphin, he said.
Apart from the baseball-sized hail reported in and around the city, crops were also flattened by the driving wind and rain. Most notable was the hail damage within Dauphin city limits, which shattered hundreds of car windows with baseball-sized ice.
“The hail varies from the small pea stuff that doesn’t last long, to the worst, which happened in Dauphin city that took out a lot of windows and damaged cars,” Watson said.
“It’s quite a strip. And as hailstorms go, it sets down here, then picks up there. If it isn’t water and wind damage laying it down and lodging, then it’s definitely hail that has shredded stuff.”
The damage came on the heels of a storm, which caused significant crop damage in the Swan River Valley Aug. 8, 100 km northwest of Dauphin.
Andrew Nadler, an agricultural meterologist based in Carman, said weather stations in the area measured 44 mm in Dauphin and 29 mm in Swan River the night before. Peak wind was 50 km-h, he added.
“Of course, it never works that we catch the really big stuff. Outside of town, someone with a rain gauge will get huge amounts,” said Nadler. “It was a really focused, concentrated storm.”
