Massive Hail Pounds Texas, Arkansas, Causes Millions in Property Damages

April 11,2014

 

 

 

 

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Severe weather struck the Central Plains and pushed into the Southeast earlier this spring, causing significant severe weather damage that an insurance industry trade group estimates left behind about $300 million in property damages.
(MORE: Severe Weather Threat Continues Through the Weekend)
"A significant amount of moisture - or water vapor - was available in the South and Central Plains in late March and early April," said weather.com meteorologist Chrissy Warrilow.
"In addition, the atmosphere in Arkansas, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas was very unstable, which means that air parcels were able to rise rapidly and create strong updrafts that were able to sustain supercell thunderstorms. These updrafts, coupled with the moist atmosphere, allowed large hailstones to develop before falling to the ground."
(MORE: Take A Look Inside a Hailstone)
The Insurance Council of Texas says about 24,000 vehicles and 12,000 homes sustained damage when softball-size hail and winds topping 80 mph swept in north of Dallas April 3.  Most of the damage was centered in Denton County, immediately north of Dallas.
The county's emergency management director, Jody Gonzalez, tells the Denton Record-Chronicle that the assessment appears accurate from what he's seen in damages.  The area was hit with multiple hailstorms that day.
Gonzalez says about 40 percent of the $300 million is likely to be damage to vehicles.
Elsewhere in Texas, baseball-sized hail knocked windows out of houses, in addition to damaging numerous cars throughout the city of Belton in Bell County.
In Hamburg, Ark., egg-sized hail was reported throughout Ashley County.
(MORE: The Underrated Danger of Large Hail)
Below are storm damage reports from throughout social media.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.