The city of Airdrie narrowly escaped being hit by a storm that pelted the community of Crossfield with hail that reached ping pong ball size in some areas.

Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Airdrie and Crossfield Wednesday night.

Photo: Diane Iwanchuk

The large hail was fairly localized with areas east and west of the town receiving little to no hail. But for residents in Crossfield the storm hit hard and fast.

“We were just hanging out inside. We heard it start really slowly and then it just blew up,” Kate Lepine described”. We went and watched it from our front porch and it was really quick and intense.”

Some parts of the town saw hail the size of ping pong balls, toonies and loonies. Lepine said despite the size of some of the hail, the damage seems to be minimal especially when compared to the hail storm that hit Calgary, parts of Rocky View County and Airdrie a little over a month ago.

“I checked out our cars this morning and it doesn’t look like there’s any damage but I can’t see the top of my truck,” she said. “We actually had left our Christmas lights up this year, it’s not something we normally do, but they got destroyed. I’ll have to get up there on the roof and clean it up later today.”