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Hail & Hailstorms

E ba gum! Big hailstones in Yorkshire.

Parts of Yorkshire were pelted with hailstones the size of a £2 coin during thunderstorms.

Photographs posted on social media showed people in Leeds and Sheffield cradling handfuls of the icy precipitation. The "large" hailstones in the images appeared to be between 3 and 4 cm in size, a Met office meteorologist said.

A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms and rain is in place for much of the UK until 09:00 on Saturday.

Hailstones are formed when drops of water freeze together in the cold upper regions of thunderstorm clouds.

Craig Snell, a meteorologist with the Met Office, said those seen in winter were "quite small", but heat in summer months gives thunderstorms more energy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-53200550
 
The Black Monday hailstorm at Chartres in 1360 not only killed circa 1,000 English soldiers but arguably forced the end of a military campaign during the Hundred Years' War.

Black Monday took place on Easter Monday (1360) during the Hundred Years' War (1337–60), when a freak hail storm struck and killed an estimated 1,000 English soldiers. The storm was so devastating that it caused more English casualties than any of the previous battles of the war. ...

On Easter Monday 13 April Edward's army arrived at the gates of Chartres. The French defenders again refused battle, instead sheltering behind their fortifications, and a siege ensued. The French defense was low in numbers and led by the Abbot of Cluny, Androuin de La Roche.

That night, the English army made camp outside Chartres in an open plain. A sudden storm materialized and lightning struck, killing several people. The temperature fell dramatically and huge hailstones along with freezing rain, began pelting the soldiers, scattering the horses. Two of the English leaders were killed, and panic set in among the troops, who had little to no shelter from the storm. One described it as "a foul day, full of myst and hayle, so that men dyed on horseback [sic].” Tents were torn apart by the fierce wind and baggage trains were strewn around. In a half-hour, the incitement and intense cold killed nearly 1,000 Englishmen and up to 6,000 horses. ...
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1360)
 
Damages from hailstorms in Texas, Oklahoma estimated to total $3.5B

Major hailstorms pelted three big cities across the south-central United States on Wednesday night, shattering windows, denting vehicles and leaving behind headaches for homeowners. The hail hit such a widespread and populated area that damage estimates are expected to total upwards of $3 billion, according to AccuWeather forecasters.

Communities around Norman, Oklahoma, and San Antonio and Fort Worth, Texas, were hit the hardest by the storms, forcing residents to take shelter inside as the massive hail bombarded the areas.

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The hail was flying with such ferocity that windows of homes were shattered and, in some cases, caused damage inside.

norman-hail-2-inches.jpg


Hail that was two inches or larger fell over 6,441 square miles combined across Texas and Oklahoma.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/seve...ers-texas-oklahoma-3-5-billion-damages/940035

maximus otter
 
hunck said:
Huge hailstones land in Texas and Oklahoma
A storm battered parts of the US on Wednesday evening, bringing with it huge hailstones, some as large as four inches (10cm).
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Make that SIX inches ... A single hailstone from that storm has been verified as the largest documented hailstone ever to fall in Texas.

HAIL CIRCUMFERENCE: 19.73 inches
HAIL DIAMETER: 6.416 inches
HAIL WEIGHT: 1.26 pounds
HAIL VOLUME: 40.239 cubic inches

Texas hailstone confirmed as largest ever to fall in Lone Star State
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/06/29/texas-record-hail-stone/5231624961118/

SCEC Report for Texas Hailstone 28 April 2021
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-content/extremes/scec/reports/20210624-Texas-Hailstone.pdf
 
Hail smashes cars.

Hail the size of golf balls fell in a thunderstorm damaging cars and smashing windows as extreme heat warnings stayed in place across England.

Katie Jaffar, from Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire, said both of their family cars were a "total write-off" and "covered in big dents".
Several roads in the East of England also flooded as temperatures of 30C (85F) turned to heavy rain and hail.

The Met Office had earlier issued a yellow warning for thunderstorms.

The hail storm hit Leicestershire at about 18:15 BST on Tuesday, with some car windows obliterated.

"One minute the kids were playing with their friends in the paddling pool and it was gloriously hot," Mrs Jaffar said. "The next minute huge dollops of rain started falling and then it turned into hail - huge lumps of it thundering down. It was so fast, it was pretty terrifying."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-57909700
 
FUgF542XwAAgjJ4.jpeg
This is not a winter scene from months ago. It's a warm-weather scene from Germany this past weekend. That's not snow - it's hail.
Winter-like scene develops in Germany, despite temps in the 70s

A winterlike scene was captured in the southern German town of Weiler-Simmerberg after an intense storm covered the streets with hailstones that accumulated to several feet ...

Video footage was captured by locals Sunday showing tractors plowing the hail as if it were snow. However, temperatures in the 70s F helped quickly melt the fallen hailstones. ...

The piles of hail came from thunderstorms that erupted across parts of western and central Europe this past weekend. The storms also dropped hail the size of tennis balls and softballs from France to Austria.
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SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...rmany-despite-temps-in-the-70s/4831654602240/
 

Toddler dies after being struck by 4in hailstone during freak storm​

Stones the size of tennis balls were crashing down and smashing people’s windshields around the Catalan town of La Bisbal de l’Emporda yesterday.
A 20-month-old girl was rushed to Josep Trueta Hospital in the city of Girona but died hours later. A woman remained in the same hospital today due to injuries she suffered in the devastating hailstorm.

Most of the other 28 people who needed medical treatment are said to have suffered head injuries, or cuts from the ice that needed stitches, as well as broken bones.
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video at link.

1661940865036.png
 
We sometimes get hail storms with hail the size of golf balls. When I was a kid my dad planted a tree in the front yard and 2 weeks later the tree was destroyed in a hail storm. Another time when I lived in southern New Mexico my co-worker and I were outside on the balcony watching the storm, we had both just bought new cars. A man had gotten out of his car in the parking lot when it started and hail ball him in the head and knocked him down. There was a man coming outside with a clipboard who had decided to wait, until he saw the man on the ground. He ran out with his clip board protecting his head and helped the man inside.
 

1-year-old girl killed by massive hailstone during freak storm​


A 1-year-old girl died Wednesday after getting hit by a giant hailstone amid a freak storm that battered Eastern Spain on Tuesday.

The toddler had reportedly been struck by an ice ball that measured 4 inches in diameter — the size of an orange — during the “short but very intense” deluge that struck Catalonia around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

She was subsequently rushed to a local hospital but died due to severe head trauma Wednesday morning.

Another 50 people were reportedly injured by the falling ice with some suffering broken bones.

https://nypost.com/2022/08/31/tot-killed-by-orange-sized-hail-during-nightmare-storm/

maximus otter
 
JahaRa said:
We sometimes get hail storms with hail the size of golf balls. When I was a kid my dad planted a tree in the front yard and 2 weeks later the tree was destroyed in a hail storm. Another time when I lived in southern New Mexico my co-worker and I were outside on the balcony watching the storm, we had both just bought new cars. A man had gotten out of his car in the parking lot when it started and hail ball him in the head and knocked him down. There was a man coming outside with a clipboard who had decided to wait, until he saw the man on the ground. He ran out with his clip board protecting his head and helped the man inside.
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In the 80's there was a hail storm in Greater Manchester with hail the size you describe. Hundreds of cars and caravans were written off due to damage caused to the vehicle panels.
 
PeteS said:
In the 80's there was a hail storm in Greater Manchester with hail the size you describe. Hundreds of cars and caravans were written off due to damage caused to the vehicle panels.
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Yes, my coworker and I had damage from the hail and the insurance companies paid to get it fixed.
 
Probably the storm of 7 June 1983. Hailstones between 50 and 75mm in diameter (smaller than the Spanish example, but plenty big enough to cause serious damage) were widely reported in Greater Manchester and Cheshire. An area 10km wide and 130km long, stretching from mid Wales to NW England, was affected.
 
I was once traveling on my motorcycle thru a long empty stretch of eastern Colorado high plains prairie when I ran into a hailstorm. No shelter for a hundred miles, not even a tree. Also no traffic, I was really out there. All I could do was pull over and hunker down. Thankfully it never got over marble sized so no serious damage to the bike, and I had a helmet and motorcycle jacket To defect it off me. After 45 min of steady hail I had to wait another hour for it to melt enough in the tire tracks of the pavement to continue. It looked like it had snowed 6”.
 
A hard, hard hailstorm's gonna fall.

The New York Times reports that hailstones are having a banner year … which is not something to celebrate.

On Aug. 1, a team of scientists from Western University in London, Ontario, collected a giant hailstone while chasing a storm in Alberta, about 75 miles north of Calgary. The hailstone measured five inches across and weighed a little more than half a pound … The Canadian hailstone added to the list of regional records set in the past couple of years, including Alabama's in 2018 (5.38 inches long, 0.612 pounds), Colorado's in 2019 (4.83 inches, 0.53 pounds) and Africa's in 2020 (around seven inches long, weight unknown). Australia set a national record in 2020, then set it again in 2021. Texas' record was set in 2021. In 2018, a storm in Argentina produced stones so big that a new class of hail was introduced: gargantuan. Larger than a honeydew melon.
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As the article notes, hail damage in the US caused a record-breaking $16.5 billion worth of damage in 2021; recently, in Catalonia, a child was even killed by a hailstorm.

https://boingboing.net/2022/09/12/giant-hailstones-are-breaking-new-records.html
 
God gives his opinion of Louis Tomlinson's singing.

Several people hoping to hear former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson left a concert venue “covered in welts and bruises” after hail and severe weather struck Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Wednesday.

Videos shared on social media show fans running for cover as hail rained down on them while others waited under an overhang as waters made their way down stairs in a weather event that appeared to cover the historic outdoor venue’s seating with hail.

Between 80 to 90 people were treated for injuries on the scene while seven were brought to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, including cuts and broken bones, according to the Denver area’s West Metro Fire Rescue.

Red Rocks, which announced a number of weather delays and calls for fans to “seek shelter” in their vehicles due to severe weather early in the evening, eventually postponed the concert on Wednesday.


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hail...rocks-amphitheatre_n_6493df3ae4b08f753c29b935
 
hailstone chaos continues in Northern Italy.

Irish tourists describe hailstones 'size of golf balls' as Lake Garda hit with chaotic weather​

25/07/2023

Lake Garda was hit by hailstones 'the size of golf balls' according to Irish tourists as the chaotic Italian weather continued to cause havoc.
With tourists having to seek shelter in hotels from the bizarre weather, the town of Peschiera del Garda experienced heavy hailstone showers.


Videos on social media showed large pieces of hail falling from the sky in all directions as the area endured a mixture of heavy heat, strong winds and intense rain.

Lake Garda was hit by hailstones 'the size of golf balls' according to Irish tourists as the chaotic Italian weather continued to cause havoc. (stock image) Pic: john finney photography/Getty Images

Carlow native Jim Dunne, told Newstalk: 'We've had at least one weather event every day. It comes really quickly and then disappears very, very quickly.

'Last night was totally different, the wind picked up, got cooler. The wind died down, it got really, really hot, and all of a sudden, it started to rain and then just hailstones like I've never seen before. They were phenomenal – the size of your fist.'

Staying in Peschiera since Friday, Mr Dunne, who was in a bar at the time of the thunderstorm, explained how 'fork lightning' dominated for 20 minutes.

https://extra.ie/2023/07/25/news/lake-garda-hailstones-weather
 
Now those are big hailstones!

Storm carrying massive ‘gorilla hail’ hits parts of Kansas and Missouri​


Storm Carrying Massive ‘Gorilla Hail’ Hits Parts Of Kansas And Missouri


Massive chunks of hail have landed on parts of Kansas and Missouri, bringing traffic to a standstill as storms unleashed possible tornadoes and meteorologists urged residents to stay indoors.

There were three unconfirmed reports of tornadoes in Wabaunsee and Shawnee counties with reports of damaged structures, but no reports of injuries or homes damaged, according to meteorologist Matt Wolters with the National Weather Service’s Topeka office.

Survey teams planned to head out on Thursday to evaluate the damage, he said.

Massive chunks of hail

The hail was deemed ‘gorilla hail’ because it had the potential to be so big, one meteorologist said (Jeremy Crabtree via AP)

There were reports of four-inch (10cm) hail in the town of Wabaunsee and three-inch (7.6cm) hail in Geary County near Junction City and Fort Riley, Mr Wolters said.

Descriptions of the hail ranged from the size of golf balls and apples, to softballs and baseballs.Alex Sosnowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, previously said the predicted hail was deemed “gorilla hail” because it had the potential to be so big.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/s...its-parts-of-kansas-and-missouri-1600987.html
 
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