Christmas in July: Size of hail stuns locals

Tuesday, July 19, 2016, 12:03 PM - Severe thunderstorms rumbled through southern Alberta Monday night prompting a tornado warning for areas northwest of Milk River.

That's after the ninth tornado of the season was confirmed near Okotoks on Sunday. Typically, Alberta sees about 15 tornadoes on average each year.

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While there were no confirmed reports of tornadoes touching down with Monday's storm, frequent lightning, powerful winds and impressive sized hail were reported. At the time the tornado warning was issued, Environment Canada had cautioned that the severe thunderstorm was capable of producing destructive straight-line winds and baseball-sized hail.

"This severe thunderstorm has a history of producing hail larger than golf balls north of Del Bonita," EC said in the warning.

Images from the storm flooded in to Twitter featuring the large and destructive hail that fell.