Hail damage to your car in Calgary: claims and repair

What to do during and right after a hailstorm

During the storm, the Government of Canada’s advice is to:

• Get inside a safe, solid building and stay away from windows, doors and skylights.
• If you are driving, find a place to pull off the road safely, and protect yourself from shattered glass by facing away from all the windows.
• If you are caught outside with no shelter nearby, crouch down, face away from the wind and protect your head and neck with your hands.
• Watch for flooding: heavy hail with rain can plug storm drains.

Once it is safe:

• Inspect the car and document the damage. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) says photos help; take them before anything is repaired or cleaned up.
• Clear broken glass safely, and keep notes and receipts for anything you pay for.
• Report the damage to your insurance representative or your insurer’s claims department. You legally have two years, but IBC recommends reporting as soon as possible.

When thunderstorms are forecast, IBC’s advice is to park in a covered area. Hail on a car that is already dented matters for another reason too: see the note on unrepaired damage below.

Sources: Get Prepared: hailstorms; IBC, August 2024; IBC: hail and insurance; IBC, June 2026

How a hail claim works in Alberta

Hail is not a collision. Under Alberta’s standard automobile policy, damage from hail is covered by Comprehensive or Specified Perils coverage, or by All Perils, which covers all perils. Collision coverage on its own, which is for collision with another object or upset, does not pay for hail. All of these are optional: Alberta requires only accident benefits and third-party liability, and a policy with only those does not cover hail damage to your car.

Your deductible applies. The standard policy treats each occurrence as a separate claim and pays the loss above the deductible. Where the damage is minor, the repair can cost about the same as the deductible or less, and a claim may not be worth making. Alberta’s Automobile Insurance Rate Board says a claim may cause your premiums to increase; ask your insurer how it treats hail claims.

After you report the damage, your insurer assigns an adjuster. After a large storm it can take some time to be contacted. Ask for a proof of loss form, and complete and return it as soon as possible to avoid delays.

You choose the body shop

In Alberta you have the right to have the damage estimated and repaired at the body shop of your choice, even if you have an adjuster. An insurer can recommend a shop but cannot require one, and if it recommends one it must tell you in writing that you may use a repairer of your choice. The exception: an insurer may elect to repair or replace the car itself, and must then give written notice within 7 days of receiving your proof of loss. If you choose the shop, the responsibility for a satisfactory repair is yours, so choose carefully, and check the shop is licensed: the province points to the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council’s list.

Leaving the dents unrepaired has a cost later. The existing hail damage endorsement, one of the standard endorsement forms approved by Alberta’s Superintendent of Insurance, lets an insurer exclude future hail damage to a car that already has it, until you show the damage has been repaired.

Sources: Standard Automobile Policy; Alberta: automobile insurance; AIRB: hail damage; belairdirect: hail damage; IBC, August 2024; Alberta: collisions and insurance; Fair Practices Regulation; Endorsement S.E.F. 13(H)

Paintless dent repair or a body shop repair?

Paintless dent repair (PDR) removes a dent by pushing or pulling the metal without damaging the finish, so the panel is not repainted. belairdirect describes it as ideal for small to moderate dents where the paint is intact, with a faster turnaround and typically a lower cost.

Conventional repair is needed where dents are deep or creased, or where the paint has cracked: the panel is repaired and refinished, or replaced. Glass is its own job. Chips in a windshield may be repairable, while cracks usually mean a new windshield.

One car can need all three: PDR where the paint is intact, conventional repair where it is not, and glass. Ask the shop for an itemized estimate that says which method it plans for each panel, and check with your insurer before work starts.

Sources: I-CAR; belairdirect: hail damage

How long repairs take after a big storm

After a storm the size of Calgary’s in 2024, the number of cars sets the pace. A week after that storm, CTV News reported that body shops were swamped and hiring, and that one hail repair company expected repairs to run into the next year. Insurers brought in adjusters from across the province to speed up vehicle assessments, and six months after the storm IBC reported that most auto claims had been completed.

After the smaller July 2025 storm, IBC still warned of high demand for replacement vehicles and auto body repairs. Plan for a wait, and ask the shop for a realistic date when you book.

Sources: CTV News Calgary; IBC, February 2025; IBC, September 2025

What drives the cost of a hail repair

GarageMap does not publish repair prices: they depend on the car and the damage, and no source publishes Calgary figures we can stand behind. What the sources do say is what moves the bill:

• Whether the dents can be fixed with PDR, or need panel repair, refinishing or replacement.
• How deep and creased the dents are, and whether the paint has cracked.
• Whether glass is chipped, which may be repairable, or cracked, which usually means replacement.
• Your deductible, which you pay on each claim.

Some cars are not repaired at all. After the 2024 storm, IBC reported that roughly half of all damaged vehicles were total losses: written off, with the owner paid out rather than the car repaired.

Sources: belairdirect: hail damage; Standard Automobile Policy; IBC, February 2025

Calgary’s hail season

Calgary is at the southern end of what the Government of Canada calls Alberta’s Hail Valley, which runs from south of Calgary to north of Red Deer, west of Highway 2. Western University’s Northern Hail Project traces what it calls Hailstorm Alley from High River through Calgary and Red Deer to Lacombe, then west to Rocky Mountain House, and calls it one of the most severe regions in the world for hail-producing thunderstorms. Environment and Climate Change Canada says Calgary is widely recognized as the hail capital of Canada.

The Calgary to Red Deer area can expect up to 10 hailstorms a year, most often from late spring through summer. The Alberta Hail Suppression Project’s cloud seeding runs from June 15 to September 15, which the province’s rate board calls peak hailstorm season, and the most severe storms in central Alberta come in July and August.

Sources: Get Prepared: hailstorms; Western University; ECCC: weather stories of 2024; Government of Canada: hailstorms; AIRB: hail damage; Canadian Encyclopedia

Recent Calgary hailstorms

Alberta has had a major hailstorm every year for the past decade, the Insurance Bureau of Canada says. These are the Calgary storms GarageMap has a page for, newest first, each with the insured-loss estimate IBC published from CatIQ’s data:

• Calgary hailstorm of July 13, 2025: $164 million in insured damage, CatIQ’s revised estimate (Insurance Bureau of Canada, September 12, 2025).
• Calgary hailstorm of August 5, 2024: $3.25 billion in insured damage, CatIQ’s revised estimate (Insurance Bureau of Canada, February 11, 2025).

Before them, in June 2020, a hailstorm hit the same part of north Calgary as the 2024 storm, with $1.2 billion in insured losses. All Calgary-area hailstorms.

Sources: IBC, February 2025; IBC, June 2026; IBC, September 2025