Thompson was able to dodge an unexpected summer hail storm that pelted Paint Lake Monday night.

 

Mike Hameluck, a former pro-athlete who was at the park at the time of the storm, told Arctic Radio that the storm started around 7:30 p.m, and that the hail started off pea-sized before eventually getting hail bigger than golf balls.

 

Hameluck says the storm lasted around 20 minutes, and it did leave quite a bit of damage in its wake.

 

“A lot of campers got beat up pretty bad. I lost all of my skylights on my camper and my awning; it hit my truck and took out my sunroof. I’ve got a Ford F150 truck with a full sunroof on the roof and it’s taken out both sheets of glass on the sunroof. It took out my taillight on the back of the truck and we got a bunch of dents on there. Just taking a walk around the park, I noticed that the skylight in one of the bathrooms was smashed out. It did a lot of damage.”

 

Hameluck adds that he spoke to park staff the morning after the storm, who told him their vehicles suffered “severe hail damage”.

 

Paint Lake’s park director Linda Horner says while damage around the park was minor, there’s lots of it.