"Gorilla Hail" In Texas And Florida (!!) Was A Winter Wonderland On Wednesday

An example of the "gorilla hail" that fell in
Texas on Wednesday. 

So, I'll start with a helluva bad pun:  It's been a hail of a week in the South. 

Especially in Texas and Florida.  

 Giant hailstones bombarded many areas of the Lone Star State Wednesday Thursday. Some balls of ice were as big as grapefruits. There were plenty of reports of hail the size of baseballs and softballs. Play ball! 

Or better, yet, file an insurance claim.

The drama started in central Texas and the state's panhandle on Tuesday. Perhaps the worst hit town was Sweetwater, where giant stones broke windows, smashed cars, and broke windshields on many of the city's ambulances and police cars.

On Wednesday, some of the so-call "gorilla hail"  hit populated areas around Waco, so I imagine there's going to be a TON of insurance claims.  We don't yet have an estimated dollar amount of damage. That'll take some time.

Video showed damaged cars with holes blown through windshields and windows blown out of houses by wind-driven hail.  It appears a tornado also likely touched down in the Waco area. 

Florida was pummeled by hail Wednesday, too

This sort of looks like a neighborhood in
Vermont after an early April light snowfall,
but it's actually after the hail around
Melbourne, Florida Wednesday. 

The area around Melbourne, Florida seemed to be hardest hit, with whiteout conditions in powerful winds, torrential downpours and lots and LOTS of hail. 

The result was ground turned white as if covered with snow. Picture January in Vermont with palm trees. Video showed intense winds, ice-covered Florida highways and the ground covered with hail and littered with branches.

Other areas of central Florida had hail the size of baseballs.  

Florida has lots of thunderstorms, but rarely has severe hail storms. The atmosphere is usually too warm over the state to support much hail.  But a pocket of cold, dry air aloft helped develop the severe thunderstorm, and provided conditions for lots of hail to form and eventually fall to the ground. 

April is a favored month for severe hail in the United States. Cold air still spills south from Canada pretty regularly. Even where it's warm and humid, this air can cool the upper atmosphere, making conditions favorable for giant hail.

When they hit populated areas, an individual hail storm can easily cause more than $1 billion in damage.  

The risk is back for gorilla  hail, and maybe a few tornadoes in Texas today.  The Dallas-Fort Worth area pretty much escaped the hail barrage on Wednesday, but might not be so lucky today.