Jorge Mendoza has been running the Rio Frio Farm near Okotoks, Alta. for 10 years and has never seen a hail storm like the one that devastated his crops Tuesday.
READ MORE: Edmonton, Calgary pounded with hail, rain during thunderstorm watches and warnings
He looked at his plot of 3,000 onions after the storm, and there was nothing left.
“Before the storm the plants were over a foot high. Now it’s completely gone,” Mendoza said. “In some places there was a foot of hail.”
Watch below: Mia Sosiak reports on a violent storm that passed through southern Alberta Tuesday
He looks after 26 acres of vegetables and berries and said 80 per cent of the crop was wiped out in 25 minutes.
“The summer is basically gone. It’s July already, so most of our vegetables take quite a bit of time to make. So I don’t think we’ll be able to do much this year.”
The farm supplies World Wide Specialty Foods and Community Natural Foods in Calgary. It had just been inspected and pre-certified as an organic farm a few weeks ago.
READ MORE: Alberta’s first tornado of 2016 recorded near Calgary
Watch below: Viewer video from Tuesday’s storm in southern Alberta
The storm was very powerful but also selective. The Saskatoon Farm–just three kilometres away–wasn’t touched.
Global’s weather specialist Paul Dunphy said the storm system could have been more damaging.
“It was seeded, which means it could have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been. This is pretty typical stuff for Calgary and southern Alberta in the summertime. This is, after all, ‘hailstone alley.'”
Rio Frio also grows hay and canola which wasn’t spared either.
Mendoza says the farm doesn’t carry crop insurance and now he just has to pick up and start over.
“There is not much we can do about it…Mother Nature. My next thing is just to clean up and keep going. Don’t give up–what else?”
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