VICTORIA -- Commuters driving on the Malahat highway faced a flash hailstorm early Wednesday morning, resulting in multiple collisions involving eight vehicles.

The hail storm was centralized in the Wellswood Road area where the collisions took place, according to police.

West Shore RCMP say that no injuries were reported.

Malahat hail

Armel Castellan, a meteorologist for Environment Canada, says it’s typical to get these short bursts of severe weather at this time of year.

“These are cells that are just a kilometre or two across sometimes,” he said.

“They can be bigger but generally [they] hit one little area really, really hard – but also for a very short duration.”

Traffic was delayed Wednesday morning while the highway was cleared.