Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
IndyStar | The Indianapolis Star
Three FEET — not inches — of hail reported in Texas storm. Has it ever happened in Indiana?
By John Tufts, Indianapolis Star,
13 days ago
Oh 'hail' no. Social media posts capturing the aftermath of a recent Texas storm have gone viral after images and videos showed hailstones — piled three feet deep in some places, officials said — blanketing one stretch of roadway in the Lone Star state.
That might sound hard to believe, but in Texas (where everything is bigger, apparently), 3 feet of hailstones barely scratches the surface of an event meteorologists with the National Weather Service have dubbed " hail glaciers ."
That's when powerful thunderstorms with heavy rain runoff can sluice hail into literal walls of ice measuring several feet in height.
Has Indiana ever seen three feet of hail?
"Off the top of my head, I can't think of a time where Indiana has had hail piled that deep," said Earl Breon, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Indianapolis . "We've had some instances of fairly large hailstones, though."
There have been 49 instances, Breon said, when hail larger than 3 inches fell across Indiana from 1963 to present. In April 1970, hailstones measuring 4 inches in diameter slammed into Ripley County, according to data provided by NWS.
Other storms have brought hail more than twice that size.
Records kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show Indiana might have witnessed hail roughly 10 inches in size (potentially shattering the current record). Here's what else we know about hail impacting areas from Texas to Indiana.
Texas sheriff's department reports 'up to 3 feet of hail' fell in Concho County
On Saturday night, the Concho County Sheriff's Department issued several news alerts warning residents about severe weather moving through the area. The county sits roughly 160 miles northwest of Austin. At 8:31 p.m. CST on May 4, the sheriff's office notified West Central Texas residents "up to 3 feet of hail" had fallen between the town of Millersview and O.H. Ivie Reservoir, a distance spanning about five miles.
The National Weather Service in nearby San Angelo issued flash flood and tornado warnings Saturday to surrounding counties as storms dumped upwards of 2-4 inches of rain.
The tennis ball-sized hailstones Saturday measured roughly 2.5 inches in diameter, according to authorities, and made roads near Millersview along F.M. 2134 impassable. The Concho County Sheriff's office advised drivers to find an alternate route after shutting down the roadway due to winter-like conditions blanketing the road's surface under what appeared to be a bumpy sheet of ice.
Ouch, but that doesn't mean three feet of hail fell everywhere.
In a social media post on X (formerly Twitter), Texas meteorologists suspected, they said, heavy rain likely caused some of the smaller hail to flow into lower lying areas on the road where it accumulated.
"From what we can tell, it was not widespread 3 feet everywhere," NWS San Angelo said, "but some roads were made impassable."
How does hail form?
Hail forms inside cumulonimbus clouds , which produce severe weather, including thunder, lightning and heavy rain.
Raindrops circulate in cumulonimbus clouds, which can lead to hailstones. Gravity pulls the water particles toward the bottom of the cloud, but stronger air drafts pulls them back up. In the cloud's upper region, these particles encounter supercooled water. With each cycle, more water freezes onto the ice particles and adds layers of ice to the developing hailstone.
The cycle can be repeated several times, creating very large hailstones. Eventually, the hailstone's weight prevents it from being drawn back up, and it falls to the ground.
What's the biggest hailstone on record?
The largest hailstone in diameter, and heaviest ever recovered in the U.S., measured 8 inches in diameter and weighed 1.9 pounds. This whopper of an ice ball was found after a violent storm in Vivian, South Dakota, in July 2010, according to NOAA’s National Climate Extremes Committee, which is responsible for validating national weather records.
But if historical records are to be believed, Indiana might have had a hailstone even larger than that.
How big does the hail get in Indiana?
In a storm data report of unusual weather phenomena issued six decades ago to the U.S. Department of Commerce, on May 6, 1961, areas of Noble County reported golf ball to 10-inch sized hail, according to NOAA . The actual diameter of the hailstones remain unconfirmed.
One of the most costly hailstorms to pummel Indiana occurred in Gibson County in March 2012, south of Fort Branch, according to NOAA. Baseball-sized hail caused more than $3 million in damage to homes, businesses, vehicles and other structures.
In Fort Branch, the March 2012 storm damaged up to 96 homes, battering rooftops, siding and busting out windows. One insurance company, according to NOAA, reported 500 vehicles were damaged, with many of those being totaled by the large hail.
Social media shows hail covering Concho County, Texas
USA TODAY reporter and graphic designer Janet Loehrke contributed to this article .
John Tufts originally 'hails' from Texas but now covers trending news for the Indianapolis Star. Send him a news tip at JTufts@Gannett.com . Follow him on X at @JTuftsReports
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Local Texas State
Most Popular
Comments / 0