In Texas, a record hail fell: it punched roofs of houses and destroyed cars

It's been over a week since a major hail fell in southern Texas... People continue to work with their insurance companies after the billion-dollar disaster, and meteorologists are investigating the potentially record-breaking iceballs that fell that day. The edition told in more detail Accu Weather.

Photo: Shutterstock

It was reported that hail, larger than a grapefruit, fell in the city of Hondo, Texas on April 28. He was so strong that he broke through the roof of the house.

One of the photos scattered across social media showed a quarter on a table that looked dwarfed by a massive hailstone. The only problem was that there was no ruler in the photo nearby to accurately measure the size of this iceball, so Matthew Kumjian intervened.

Koumjian is a professor of meteorology at the University of Pennsylvania. He used a technique called photogrammetry to estimate the size of the hailstones, given the known size of a quarter.

“I tried to take into account the perspective of the camera by measuring the two axes of the quarter,” Koumdjian said. “Then I used its outline to figure out the size of the hailstone.”

Based on this method, it was estimated to have a diameter of 6,27 to 6,57 inches (16-16,6 cm).

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Unfortunately, this particular hailstone has not survived, but Kumjiyan's assessment turned out to be accurate.

A team from the Insurance Institute for Business Safety (IBHS) coordinated with the NWS to analyze another major hailstorm that fell in Hondo on April 28 and survived.

The organization has established hailstones records in Colorado and Alabama, and has used special equipment to 3D-print the ice lumps to help investigate the hail since it melted.

Weighing 1,26 pounds (0,5 kg), the ice ball was 6,4 inches (16,2 cm) in diameter.

Such a large hail far surpasses the criteria to be called harsh hail, which is considered to be 1 inch (2,5 cm) in diameter. On the rare occasion that hail reaches 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter, it is classified as gigantic.

“Giant hail is officially considered to be hail with a maximum size of at least 6 inches (15 cm),” Kumdjian said.

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Now that the size of the giant hail has been confirmed, the NWS is helping with an investigation to determine if it is indeed the largest hail ever struck in Texas.

“We're still working with a climate scientist to draw conclusions as there is no official record in the state,” said Paul Jura, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service (NWS) Austin-San Antonio office.

“We'll have to look at all the storm records going back decades and get a group together to discuss it,” he added. “It’s not a quick process.”

Even if this hailstorm does not set a record, research and investigation during the process is likely to lead to the announcement of an official record for ice precipitation in Texas.

Although the hail in Hondo could be a record for Texas, it is far from the largest ice precipitation in the United States.

According to the National Committee on Climate Extremes (NCEE), 8 inches (20 cm) hail was confirmed in Vivian, South Dakota on July 23, 2010, although the piece of ice was much larger when it hit the ground.

"The hailstones initially collected after the storm were 11 inches (28 cm) in diameter, but they shrank in the observer's freezer due to a power outage after the storm," NCEE explained.

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