Weather Blog: Large hail causes major damage in southern plains

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Severe storms struck portions of Texas and Oklahoma yesterday triggering Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm, and Flash Flood Warnings.

Below you can see the evolution of the Storm Prediction Center’s Severe Outlook yesterday as the storms began to fire up. The severe weather wasn’t limited to TX and OK, it stretched all the way to New York State.

Check out this animation of the SPC Outlook yesterday. Notice the addition of the level 3... — Check out this animation of the SPC Outlook yesterday. Notice the addition of the level 3 enhanced risk in central Texas.(WRDW)

All of the icons on the animation represent damage reports. The black triangles that stretch through Southern Texas and portions of Oklahoma represent hail that was greater than 2 inches in diameter. The minimum severe requirement for hail is 1 inch in diameter. There was also tornado and wind damage reported with blue and red icons. The image below comes from the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma showing the large path of damaging hail with some locations seeing hail between 2-3 inches in diameter.

April 28th hailstorm that impacted portions of Oklahoma. — April 28th hailstorm that impacted portions of Oklahoma.(NWS: Norman)

Down in Texas, just to the southwest of San Antonio, they had multiple tornado warnings, heavy rain, gusty winds, and large hail. On the lefthand side of the image below you can see pink, purple, and blue colors which indicate very large hail. There is even an icon with a 3 on it which indicates 3 inch size hail, that’s larger than a baseball! Hail that size will definitely cause damage to cars, home windows, and roofs.

Large hail showing up on radar indicated in pink and dark blue. — Large hail showing up on radar indicated in pink and dark blue.(NWS: Austin/San Antonio)

Copyright 2021 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.