Hail the size of melons! See the giant that could rank among Texas' largest in history
JOHNSON CITY, Texas – Severe storms over Texas on Thursday produced dozens of reports of damage, but giant hailstones outside of Austin have people talking.
Katie Puckett in Johnson City found one massive hailstone, which she said was over 6 inches in diameter and will likely cement itself in the record books for being one of the largest in the state’s history.
"The first hail that we got was golf ball-sized. And at that point, I was like, ‘Oh no, this is bad,'" Puckett told FOX Weather. "So, we kind of sat and watched it for a minute, and then within maybe a minute or two of having the golf ball size, it started to get about baseball size, and it just progressively got worse after that."
Local National Weather Service offices issue Severe Thunderstorm Warnings when hail the size of a quarter or an inch in diameter is anticipated, but these storms crushed what typically falls over the state.
A hailstone that measures 4" in diameter is described as softball-sized, and once you get into the 5" range, the terms CD or DVD are often used to describe the size of the ice. A 6.25" hailstone is usually described as being melon-sized and larger than an iPhone.
WHAT’S BEHIND ALL THE GIANT HAIL THAT HAS PELTED THE SOUTH?
Preliminarily, the Johnson City hail was the second largest ever witnessed in the state, but this ranking could change as meteorologists measure the ice and go back and look at radar returns.
Other large hailstones were reported outside of Fort Worth in the towns of Itasca and Granbury, which measured to be around the size of a grapefruit.
Hail forms when raindrops become suspended in powerful thunderstorm updrafts. The ice chunks typically start off as the size of peas and dimes but grow as they are suspended in the clouds. When the hailstone grows to a size that the updraft can no longer support, it falls towards the ground.
The FOX Forecast Center estimated that wind speeds in the updraft were well over 100 mph.
Dozens of windows and cars in neighboring Hays County were damaged during the severe weather.
A local judge declared a disaster declaration and encouraged residents to be extremely careful during the cleanup stage.
Hail causes billions of dollars worth of damage around the country every year, with Central Oklahoma often seeing the most events.
The largest hailstone ever reported in the U.S. fell in Vivian, South Dakota, on July 23, 2010. NOAA reported the ice chunk was 8 inches wide and weighed nearly 2 pounds.
Original article source: Hail the size of melons! See the giant that could rank among Texas' largest in history
