Giant hail recorded Tuesday evening in the town of… See more
On Tuesday evening, residents in a small town experienced an extraordinary weather event — giant hailstones falling from the sky, causing damage to property, shaking up local routines, and reminding everyone just how powerful nature can be. While details are still emerging about the precise location and full damage assessments, what’s clear is that this wasn’t just typical pea‑sized hail. This was giant hail — lumps of ice much larger than expected — pelting the town in a storm that drew attention from meteorologists and residents alike.
Severe hailstorms like this are rare, dramatic, and often carry real consequences for communities. Let’s take a deeper look at what happened, why such storms form, what impacts giant hail can have, and how residents can stay prepared for future severe weather.
What Happened Tuesday Evening?
Residents reported thunderclouds building in the late afternoon, temperatures fluctuating, and wind picking up — familiar signs of an approaching thunderstorm. By early evening, that storm unleashed hailstones significantly larger than typical hail.
In many severe hail events, hailstones can range from pea‑sized to golf ball‑sized. But in this recent storm, reports and damage suggested stones much larger, sometimes comparable to tennis balls or even softball size — enough to dent cars, damage roofs, and break windows. Although official measurements are still pending, witness accounts and early weather spotter reports indicate that some hailstones were exceptionally large and fell with significant force.
This phenomenon isn’t limited to this one event. Other regions have seen similarly outsized hail in recent years. For example, grapefruit‑sized hailstones — as large as 4 to 6 inches in diameter — were reported in Texas during severe thunderstorms on a recent weekend, causing damage across multiple counties.
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These kinds of hail events are extraordinary, rare, and awe‑inspiring — but they also pose real safety and economic concerns.
Why Does Giant Hail Form? A Look at the Science
Updrafts lift water droplets high into cold air — where temperatures are below freezing.
Droplets freeze and may fall, but in strong storms they’re pushed upward again and again.
With each cycle through the cold layer, more water freezes onto the developing hailstone.
Eventually the hailstone gets too heavy for the updraft to hold, and it falls to the ground.
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In particularly strong storms — often called supercells — the updrafts are so vigorous that hailstones grow very large before finally falling. These giant hailstones are not only big — they fall fast and hard, causing significant damage as a result.
In some extreme hail events, stones have been confirmed over 6 inches in diameter, and there have even been extraordinary outliers in history where hailstones reached up to 20 centimeters (nearly 8 inches) in Europe.
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Such conditions typically occur when:
