Snow and hail blanket southern Alberta highway in July

Drivers near the CrowsnestPass were met with some decidedly unseasonalconditions on Tuesday night.

Highway 22 in southern Alberta was blanketed in what looked like snow but was probably hail, making roads slick and slow.

"We were driving and suddenly it just became a little bit foggy. Then we noticed just a little bit of snow on the side and didn't think much of it. Then all of a sudden we couldn't see anything, not even the car in front of us," said Sasha Selby, who drove through the aftermath of the storm.

Winter driving in the summer

6 years ago

Duration 0:10

Some drivers in southern Alberta were met with winter-like conditions on the last day of July.

"It was entirely filled with fog and there was snow everywhere and there was loads of cars in the ditch maybe three or four cars in the ditch and there was a massive tow truck that had no lights on that was blocking the highway as well and we almost hit that and managed to swerve around. It was quite frightening, actually."

Selbysaid they drove, slowly, through the winter-like conditions for 20 to 30 minutes.

"It was a beautiful day and it was warm when we left Calgary then all of a sudden this complete turn of events," she said."It was six degrees by our car thermometer there."

More severe weather

John Paul Cragg, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said thunderstorms moved off the Foothills between 6and 7 p.m. Tuesday.

"The hail was pretty small, but the accumulations were quite high and there was enough accumulation that the roadways were covered," he said.

"This is something that's not completely uncommon through the summer months, but it doesn't happen very often."

Cragg said there's potential for more severe weather across Alberta on Wednesday.

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