Those little round ice balls can do some damage
Fortunately, here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, hail is an infrequent occurrence with most of us only seeing those little round ice balls on one or two occasions per year. Not so just off the Front Range of the Rockies or the Pacific Northwest were it is a much more frequent visitor with annual appearance of 10 to 20 times per year.
Hail is defined as precipitation that falls in the form of small balls or lumps usually consisting of concentric layers of clear ice or compact snow. Hail can do a lot of damage, and again, our area usually just sees minor damage.
Hail forms when updrafts of air in thunderstorms are strong enough to carry water droplets well above the freezing level. This process forms a hailstone which can continue to grow as additional rain water is added and freezes. Eventually, the hailstone becomes too heavy and falls to the ground.
The largest measured hailstone fell at Coffeyville, Kansas, on September 3 1970. It measured 5.7 inches in diameter and had a circumference of 17.5 inches. Hail can often reach the size of baseballs or softballs and a more recent occurrence in Aurora, Nebraska, reported hail as large as volleyball with diameters of 7 inches and a circumference of 18.75 inches. Fatalities are rare; however, a 19-year-old man caught out in the open near Fort Worth, Texas, died from head injuries sustained during a violent hailstorm.
A story in the鈥� Extreme Weather鈥� record book talks about an estimated 1,000 English soldiers being killed and injured on April 13, 1360, on a battlefield in Chartes, France, during the 100 Years War.
Damage from hail can be substantial, especially to vulnerable growing crops and automobile car lots. A storm in Kansas City area in 2001 caused over $2 billion in damages. Farmers are encouraged to purchase Crop and Hail Insurance to protect crops while growing and Homeowners and Auto insurance policies should respond to damage from hail.
Hail accumulated four feet deep in Dix, Nebraska on April 4 1987, and a freak storm in Los Angeles on November 12, 2003, resulted in a hail accumulation of one foot deep.
On July 13, 1788 heavy hail damage in France destroyed much of their growing crops and in a time of economic turmoil the resulting food shortages helped bring about the French Revolution one year later.
Hail Intensity Scale
Pea size 鈥� little or no damage
Marble size 鈥� holes in flowers and plants
Penny sized 鈥� damages vegetable and strips leaves from plants
Nickel sized 鈥� breaks glass, dents trailers, puts holes in tents
Golf ball sized 鈥� breaks windows, scrapes off paint, kills chickens and small birds
Tennis ball sized 鈥� dents cars, roof tiles and kills small animals
Softball sized 鈥� Cracks concrete roofs, destroys roofs, marks pavement, injure and kill people
Volleyball sized 鈥� Destroys wooden houses serious damage to brick homes and kills people