Tornadoes Get The Attention But Hail Storms (Sometimes) Cause More Of The Damage

Giant pre-dawn hail in Orange Beach, 
Alabama this morning.

 As is common in the spring, there was another outbreak of severe weather in the South Friday. 

Tornadoes get the attention in severe weather, and so far there have been no confirmed reports of anything like that.  Though, with further investigation, meteorologists might discover a few did indeed touch down. The lack of tornadoes, though, is probably why you haven't heard about this rough weather in the South. 

This time, it was hail that predominated.  There were a whopping 255 reports of large hail, from Friday afternoon through early this morning, with more than a dozen reports of hail stones at least as big as tennis balls. 

There's usually at least a couple big outbreaks of hail every spring like that. As noted, they don't get the attention, but hail outbreaks often turn out to be some of the most damaging storm events of any given year. 

A June, 2018 hail storm in Colorado caused about $2.3 billion in damage. Large hail stones around Phoenix, Arizona in October, 2010 caused about $4.5 billion in damage.  A hail storm propelled by winds as high as 80 mph caused $300 million in damage in just the town of Wylie, Texas in 2016.  

A hail barrage in Calgary, Alberta, Canada last year forced insurers to write off more cars than the total number sold annually in Alberta each year. 

I don't know whether Friday's and last night's widespread hail will have damage total as huge as those.  It'll depend if they targeted cities with plenty of roofs, windows, cars and trucks to trash. Surely, however, insurance adjusters will be awfully busy over the next days and weeks because of Friday's hail, which stretched from northern Texas to southern Alabama to North Carolina.

We do know that tennis and baseball sized hail came down in the suburbs south of Dallas-Fort Worth Friday.  Early this morning, baseball and tennis ball sized hail crashed down on the beaches, condos and resorts along the Alabama Gulf Coast. 

Big hail storms tend to focus on the same parts of the nation that tornadoes tend to congregate.  Here in Vermont, though, we can get damaging hail, just as the occasional tornado spins up, as one did last month in Middlebury. 

A supercell thunderstorm in Addison and Rutland counties caused widespread hail damage to cars, windows and roofs, especially around Proctor and downtown Rutland back in May, 2014.  In July, 2009 the  largest hail stones on record for Vermont fell on Westford. Some were three inches in diameter, or a little bigger than baseballs. 

 Video from the local CBS affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth: 

Large hail stones early this morning crashing down on a resort and its swimming pools in Orange Beach, Alabama: