As warmer temperatures continue to move into the area, the possibility for severe storms also comes through more often.

Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf says that one of the more common severe storms that comes through the Raccoon Valley Radio listening area is severe thunderstorms. He explains that a watch is the advisory that conditions are favorable for a thunderstorm, and that a warning means that there are thunderstorms in that area at that moment. Kempf adds that there are other weather events that can occur with severe thunderstorms, like heavy rains, high speed winds and hail. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio a common misconception about hail.

“The other thing is, a lot of people think that hail is always round. Well, hail can actually be jagged also, so it may be more of an egg shape and it may actually have bumps where those molecules, smaller hailstones have come together and stuck together, and it can have very jagged edges on it.”

Kempf explains that hail forms in thunderstorms when water molecules are blown up into the cloud on an updraft. He mentions that eventually those molecules reach a cold layer and start to freeze, and collide with other molecules to grow to a size that they can no longer stay airborne, and begin to fall. Kempf advises that if anyone is wanting to report hail in their area, to not describe it as marble sized, since there are many different sizes of marbles. He adds that common size descriptions for hail are pea, dime, nickel, quarter, ping pong or golf ball, baseball and softball sized.