An Alberta couple's trip to Calgary to catch a Creed concert changed course abruptly when a sudden summer hailstorm stopped them in their tracks on Aug. 20.
Less than 20 minutes after leaving their homes in Brooks, Alberta and heading west on Highway 1, Alyssa Snyder and her boyfriend Mitchell McAllister saw the sky darken and rain began to fall.
"All of a sudden it got pretty windy," said Snyder.
The sky turned grey and it began to rain. But then it was coming down so heavy she had to slow right down, and then she couldn't even see to drive and she pulled over to the side of the road.
Then the hail began, some as big as a toonie, and a back window was smashed by the force.
"Inside the car was getting hammered," she said.
She and McAllister got out and sought shelter behind a vehicle tire, huddling together to try and protect one another from the wind-driven hail as much as they could.
The hail and broken window glass showered down on them.
Within the span of just 10 minutes, the fast-moving storm passed them by and the sky was blue.
But the short super cell storm had not left them unscathed. Snyder said she was cut and bleeding, with welts coming up on her back and leg. Her boyfriend also had a couple of welts, but was mostly okay.
Her car was not.
Five windows had broken from the onslaught of the hail, four were on the driver's side and one rear passenger side window. Her driver's side taillight was broken, the hood, driver's side and roof were dented and the car's grill was also damaged.
Rather than continue the two-hour drive to Calgary, the couple drove back to Brooks, soaking wet and with no driver's side windows. They drove slowly, about 30 km per hour she said, but every time a vehicle passed them, they were getting sprayed by water and slush, with no side windows to keep it out.
Snyder said on the way back, her boyfriend was describing some of the destruction as they went but she couldn't see much after losing her glasses exiting the vehicle.
She said he spotted power poles down, signs pushed over, and other evidence of the storm's passing.
At his house, her boyfriend found even more damage, with his siding and skirting around his home destroyed.
They went to the hospital to have the large welts and glass in her back looked at, but staff sent her home to shower and said it should come out on its own.
By the next day, she said the welts had turned to bruises and she couldn't feel any glass in her skin anymore.
She and her boyfriend also then returned to where they had pulled off the road and managed to find her glasses, though they were "bent up like crazy." Thankfully, the optometry office was able to get them back into shape and she was wearing them again.
While Snyder said there had been a thunderstorm warning in effect that day, the area can get as many as two to three of those a week sometimes, so they hadn't thought it could be something this extreme.
She said in the future she is going to be looking a little harder at forecasts before undertaking trips.