Cloud seeders used to reduce size of Alberta's hail mercredi, 29 juillet 2020 à 14:00 - Planes take to the skies in attempt to reduce hail from size of a golf ball to a pea The swathe of Alberta dubbed "hailstorm alley" seems determined to live up to its ominous nickname in 2020 — and throughout those recent summer storms, planes took to the skies in an effort to minimize hail before it fell. The Alberta Severe Weather Management Society is a private non-profit that was established by provincial insurance companies to create a program called the Alberta Hail Suppression Project. Established in 1996, the project has its own weather radar and five cloud seeding airplanes — three at the Springbank Airport and two in Red Deer — that usually fly in pairs to meet clouds that register as potentially severe.